Navy, Marines Plan To Modernize UAS-Piloted Interactions

The Navy is working on plans to further incorporate missions conducted jointly by piloted and unmanned aircraft. Once finalized, such operations would become “the new normal,” Frank Kelly, the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for unmanned systems, said at a robotics conference in late October. The Marine Corps is embracing the concept. “We have been in an era where technology has allowed us … to dominate just about any enemy out there in the last 15 years. We’re going to fall behind if we don’t rapidly change the way we’re operating,” Lt. Gen. Robert S. Walsh, commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command. The Association for Unmanned Vehicles International, a professional organization for the robotics community, held the conference at which Kelly and Walsh spoke.