Organic persistent intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance

Abstract

Under the direct control of the small tactical unit they support, organic unmanned vehicle are capable of rapidly responding to the tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) needs of front-line "edge" war fighters. Yet organic vehicles are small and their limited range place a drain on tactical manpower by requiring a dedicated operator from the tactical unit during use. In contrast, larger unmanned vehicles that can be deployed and controlled from a rear-echelon base do not place a drain on tactical unit manpower and are capable of providing more time on station. Unfortunately, because there are far more tactical units than large unnamed vehicles, large vehicles are rarely available to support unanticipated, tactical ISR needs. JHU-APL and the Boeing Company have developed OPISR, a prototype unmanned vehicle system that combines the immediate response to tactical ISR needs provided by organic assets with the time-on-station, minimal logistics provided by persistent unmanned systems. OPISR is a system of autonomous unmanned air, ground, sea surface and undersea vehicles that collectively interpret real-time tactical ISR objectives submitted by any number of disadvantaged users, gathers the required ISR data and returns the needed intelligence directly to the affected user. OPISR is an ad hoc, decentralized system that requires no central base or authority and is capable of functioning in communications-denied environment. The paper describes a series of experiments performed in 2011 and 2012 in which sixteen fully autonomous unmanned vehicles, including three Insitu (Boeing's wholly owned subsidiary) ScanEagles, were used to simultaneously support mounted, dismounted and maritime users. Copyright © 2013 Boeing and JHU APL. All Rights Reserved.