MEDIUM DISPLACEMENT UNMANNED SURFACE VEHICLE AND OVER-THE-HORIZON TARGETING IN DISTRIBUTED MARITIME OPERATIONS

Abstract

As the U.S. Navy continues the development of the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV), a doctrinal shift of the surface fleet necessitates examining potential manned-unmanned teaming mission sets within the construct of Distributed Maritime Operations. Utilizing systems engineering for architectural development, discrete-event simulation, and analysis, this capstone report evaluates MDUSV performance of an intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting mission in support of a 2–3 ship Adaptive Force Package’s over-the-horizon surface strike. The results indicate that there is a large benefit associated with utilizing passive sensors on MDUSVs in lieu of an active radar and that the magnitude of this benefit increases when lofting the passive sensors on towed airborne arrays. Extensions to MDUSV communications and operating ranges, in some configurations, led to detections of the enemy further from friendly manned vessels, but decreased the survivability and lethality of the main body when these ranges eclipsed the lowest ranged surface-strike weapons in the inventory. Additionally, while overall effectiveness increased with an offensive jammer on MDUSV, defensive countermeasures provided no discernible improvement to the Adaptive Force Package’s performance.