USMC VERTICAL TAKEOFF AND LANDING AIRCRAFT: HUMAN–MACHINE TEAMING FOR CONTROLLING UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEMS

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is investing in aviation technologies through its Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft program that will enhance mission superiority and warfare dominance against both conventional and asymmetric threats. One of the USMC program initiatives is to launch unmanned aerial systems (UAS) from future human-piloted VTOL aircraft for collaborative hybrid (manned and unmanned) missions. This hybrid VTOL-UAS capability will support USMC intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare (EW), communications relay, and kinetic strike air to ground missions. This capstone project studied the complex human-machine interactions involved in the future hybrid VTOL-UAS capability through model-based systems engineering analysis, coactive design interdependence analysis, and modeling and simulation experimentation. The capstone focused on a strike coordination and reconnaissance (SCAR) mission involving a manned VTOL platform, a VTOL-launched UAS, and a ground control station (GCS). The project produced system requirements, a system architecture, a conceptual design, and insights into the human-machine teaming aspects of this future VTOL capability.Major, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

A World That Counts: Mobilising The Data Revolution For Sustainable Development

This report sets out the main opportunities and risks presented by the data revolution for sustainable development. Seizing these opportunities and mitigating these risks requires active choices, especially by governments and international institutions. Without immediate action, gaps between developed and developing countries, between information-rich and information-poor people, and between the private and public sectors will widen, and risks of harm and abuses of human rights will grow

The Future of Precision-Strike Warfare—Strategic Dynamics of Mature Military Revolutions

The precision conventional revolution, which yielded early U.S. military successes, is entering a more mature phase. Future great-power wars could tend toward protracted conflicts as superpowers seek to coerce each other without escalating to nuclear warfare. The proliferation and massing of precision conventional weapons may worsen such conventional military stalemates, with each side eviscerating the other’s power-projection capabilities

Transforming the Navy

Judged against the expectations created by President Bush and his defense team, the Navy’s transformation enterprise falls short. However, no compelling strategic rationale for military transformation has yet been articulated. A revolution in military affairs is not required for the maintenance of U.S. military dominance specifically or American primacy generally, or for fighting and winning the global war on terror

All-Domain Sensor Network Orchestration from Seabed-to-Space

NPS NRP Technical ReportThe DoD seeks to conduct all-domain operations, requiring Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) across all domains of conflict. For the Navy, this uniquely includes the deep seabed, undersea, sea surface, air, space and cyberspace operations. All-Domain ISR encompasses and integrates information from all domains of the maritime environment, sensors and sources from seabed-to-space, to provide commanders with the most complete picture of adversary activities. This capability supports the Navy approach to Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), an operational concept that enables widely dispersed naval units to perform sensing, command and control and weapon activities such that the distributed platforms act as a coherent whole. All-domain ISR requires a network to enable widely dispersed sensors to exchange and combine sensor data (the fusion of data) to provide a complete understanding of the operational picture, and to provide targeting information for long-range engagement required by DMO. This research studies the diverse sensor access time horizons, sensor mode options, observation feasibilities, and relative contribution of all-domain sensors (seabed-to-space) which pose a significant mathematical and computational challenge to achieve all-domain ISR. Furthermore, the delays from sensing to fusion across such a wide range of sensors can diminish the contribution of some combinations of sensing modes. The study also evaluates the distribution of fusion nodes across an all-domain network to improve the delivery of information across the network.Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC Pacific)ASN(RDA) - Research, Development, and AcquisitionThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

OPTIMIZING NORWEGIAN SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES FOR FUTURE OPERATIONS IN THE INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT

Operations in the information environment (OIE) are increasingly central to military operations across the competition continuum. Norwegian Special Operations Forces (NORSOF) faces this reality when realigning capabilities for missions and tasks in the future security environment. This research aims to answer the question, “What gaps, challenges, and opportunities does NORSOF face to effectively integrate and develop information-related capabilities to increase its operational utility in the information environment?” To do so, this thesis offers a study of policy and DOTmLPF-F capability elements (e.g., doctrine, organization, training) that contrasted with data from a survey administered by the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. The research finds a defensive and reactive policy and a doctrinal focus on effects in the physical domain. Further, NORSOF faces internal and external resource constraints, knowledge gaps, and limited OIE-related leadership priorities. This thesis suggests NORSOF increase operational utility in the information environment by focusing on education, leadership development, organizational responsibilities, joint targeting process involvement, and dedicated engagement in ongoing strategic level and Norwegian Army strategic communication and information projects. Furthermore, it recommends long-term approaches to enhance training and exercises, influence PME curriculum, and foster an active dialog with military strategic and political leadership.Norwegian Special Operations Command (NORSOCOM)Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI)Major, Norwegian ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio