Drone sensor data will overload networks, Navy officials warn.

AuthorJean, Grace V.
PositionNavy

The expected growth of unmanned systems at sea is raising concerns that the Navy's networks are ill prepared to handle the commensurate flood of data that the sensors will produce.

"The Navy's architecture is not designed to address the influx of sensors that is coming on," said Chris Miller, executive director of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic

The Navy's maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roadmap indicates that officials intend to field a fleet of unmanned undersea vehicles by the end of the decade along with a squadron of unmanned carrier-launched aircraft by 2018. The fleet already is operating several robotic helicopters to support ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Somalia, and those systems are producing a lot of data, officials said at a recent naval IT conference in Vienna, Va.

"Information is exploding and much of it is coming from the sea" said David Weddel, assistant deputy chief of naval operations for information dominance.

As the Navy fields unmanned systems, the demand for bandwidth and data is going to increase by more than 1,000 percent, he said.

"In the past, we always received more information [at sea] than we ever had to push back," he said. "That equation has changed."

The MQ-8 Fire Scout, a vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle, or VTUAV, is producing a fair amount of data and that number is only going to increase as more systems hit the fleet, Weddel said. There are two VTUAVs operating from frigates sailing off the coast of Somalia conducting anti-piracy operations and supporting special operations forces ashore. One was reportedly shot down in June over Libya, where it had been diverted to support NATO forces. Three more Fire Scouts are supporting troops in Afghanistan.

Weddel said the Navy has plans to develop a follow-on to those aircraft. The medium-range maritime unmanned air system will carry heavier payloads and have longer endurance, he added.

Beneath the ocean; sailors are operating unmanned undersea vehicles called littoral battle space gliders that sense water temperature and salinity. The submersible robots are producing large amounts of data because they capture pictures of the ocean battle space, said Weddel. Three of them deployed last year to the Gulf of Mexico to support government officials during the BP oil spill crisis. They were employed to help track the location and depth of the oil.

These semi-autonomous vehicles and drones--in...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT