The US Navy has successfully tested an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) capable of autonomously flying missions and landing on moving ships without relying on GPS or pilot oversight.
The demonstration was conducted by the Naval Air Warfare Centre Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at sea.
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During the live-flight test, a tactical drone utilised on-board commercial-grade cameras, motion sensors, and electronics to identify ship shapes and visual cues, allowing it to autonomously navigate and recover on the ship, even when external navigation signals were unavailable.
The fly-and-land task, managed by advanced software developed by NAWCAD’s Maritime Autonomous Guidance-Navigation-Control Intelligent Coupled Systems Lab, involved the drone predicting the vessel’s deck movements in real time to achieve safe landings.
Ordinarily, UAS depend on expensive radar systems, recovery gear, and time-intensive ship modifications for at-sea recoveries.
NAWCAD’s software-based solution bypasses the need for this hardware, offering a modular system designed to operate on a broad range of drone hardware, from small quadcopters to larger combat-class aircraft.
NAWCAD commander Rear Admiral Todd Evans said: “In contested areas where satellites and communications are jammed, autonomy gives significant advantage to our sailors. Breakthroughs like this help us scale unmanned capability fast and affordably across a distributed fleet.”
Following initial flight demonstrations, the software will move to operational testing on US Navy fleet platforms.
NAWCAD intends to adapt the technology for use with larger uncrewed systems, such as tactical resupply drones, and is coordinating with programme offices including the Navy’s Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems office, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme, and DARPA’s EVADE project, to integrate the capability into existing acquisition processes.
Based at Patuxent River in Maryland, NAWCAD conducts testing, evaluation, research, development and sustainment work for US Navy and Marine Corps aviation platforms.
Funding for the GPS-independent drone guidance and landing project was provided by the Naval Innovative Science and Engineering Programme and the Office of Naval Research.
