Autonomous underway replenishment at sea for Riverine operations

Abstract

Currently the United States Navy is making a small footprint in the world's littoral regions with the help of the United States Marine Corps. In Iraq, the Marine Corps is actively conducting Riverine operations, however they are overly tasked and in need of permanent replacement by the United States Navy. In order to alleviate the Marine Corps, the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command with its Riverine Squadrons will soon take over these Riverine operational commitments in order to reestablish supremacy throughout the Riverine environment. With this in mind, the Chief of Naval Operations, Center for Naval Analyses requirements, System Engineering Analysis (SEA- 11) class of 2007 developed a concept of operations (CONOPS) which the Total Ships System Engineering (TSSE) class of 2007 used to develop a prototype platform, which met all initial design requirements. In order to take full advantage of this prototype platform, every effort was taken in order to minimize the number of crew members on station at any given time. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the use of the direct method, which will allow the Specialized Command and Control Craft (SCCC) to conduct a fully autonomous Underway Replenishment at Sea (UNREP) with a standard supply vessel. The direct method approach allows for a smooth path is created instead of using waypoint navigation. Additionally, this method allows for real-time updates at (1Hz).