The Department of the Navy released its Unmanned Campaign Framework, which represents the Navy and Marine Corps’ strategy for making unmanned systems a trusted and integral part of warfighting.

Thomas W. Harker, Secretary of the Navy (Acting), writes:

The Department of the Navy is moving with purpose to innovate and adapt new technology to build a more lethal and distributed naval force for the future. To compete and win in an era of great power competition, the Department is committed to investing in advanced autonomy, robust networks, and unmanned systems to create true integrated human-machine teaming that is ubiquitous across the fleet.

The framework outlines the following goals:

1. Advance manned-unmanned teaming effects within the full range of naval and joint operations.

2. Build a digital infrastructure that integrates and adopts unmanned capabilities at speed and scale.

3. Incentivize rapid incremental development and testing cycles for unmanned systems.

4. Disaggregate common problems, solve once, and scale solutions across platforms and domains.

5. Create a capability-centric approach for unmanned contributions (platforms, systems, subsystems) to the force.

“The Navy and Marine Corps unmanned campaign plan serves as a roadmap for how we will realize a future where unmanned systems serve as an integral part of the Navy’s warfighting team in support of distributed maritime operations,” said Vice Adm. Jim Kilby, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities. “The plan lays out how we will scale tested and proven systems as well as develop the core technologies required to successfully integrate unmanned systems into the fleet.”

To read the Framework: Unmanned Campaign Framework