Swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs): extending Marine aviation ground task force communications using UAVs

Abstract

Technological advances and research are pushing the application of unmanned vehicles in exciting directions. This thesis emphasis is on cost estimation for a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with swarm applications. The new swarm UAV theoretical can be designed to emulate the current unmanned aerial system (UAS) mission, and expand upon the communication relay mission. Small UASs have a line-of-sight capability limitation that leaves room for improvement. The UAVs organic to the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) are the primary focus for this analysis because organic USMC UAVs are habitually small UAVs. The analysis will determine a rough cost estimation range for a future AV with new technology. Based on the adaptation of networking topologies and research, the communication relay mission is a feasible capability to Peruse in future swarm UAVs. The analysis suggests that a swarm UAV is comparable in cost to legacy UAVs currently in service in the USMC.