SCO - Overlord Ghost Fleet
In the future combat technology book “Ghost Fleet,” by P.W. Singer and August Cole, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Coronado, is equipped with the ATHENA program. The Automated Threat Enhanced Network Awareness Program (ATHENA) is the ship’s autonomous battle management system that tracks targets and coordinates with other systems, both internal and external, faster than a human crew can. The network of nodes and sensors connect all vital systems onboard the LCS. This system truly integrates and maximizes the terms “fight the ship” and “save the ship,” and the book details how this represent a giant leap forward in surface combat operations.
The Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) has been working closely with the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) to fast-track this technology into operational service. The Strategic Capabilities Office is a special DoD-level effort to harness, leverage and integrate near-term emerging technology for faster delivery to combatant commanders.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), is partnering with the U.S. Navy, specifically the Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office (PMS 406), to develop and demonstrate capability for independently-deploying autonomous Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) as part of an OSD/SCO program known as the Overlord Program, with details released 22 September 2017.
The Overlord Program USVs will be used to demonstrate an enhanced warfare capability to negatively impact adversaries in a given maritime region. USV autonomy capability is intended to augment the existing complement of manned naval warships and enhance the warfighting effectiveness of the fleet. Critical to the Overload program is partnership and coordination with industry to rapidly deliver the required prototype capability to support demonstration and evaluation.
The Government envisions a relationship with industry to provide a vehicle in which to demonstrate autonomy in Phase I of the program, and then down-select Partner Teams in Phase II for further test and demonstration, in order to deliver an optionally manned vehicle to the Government. Given the rapid nature of this effort and the foundation it will likely lay for the Navy’s future medium and large USV efforts, partnering with industry is critical.
During the 12-month Phase I, the Government is seeking to evaluate developmental prototype solutions that address the autonomous operation of USVs for applicability to future advanced technology demonstrations. A competitive capability evaluation is planned in order to determine the maturity of potential industry solutions and to assess the state of the practical with respect to USV autonomy. The evaluation approach assumes multiple contractors developing or integrating advanced technology platforms for assessment by the Government. Assessment will include data gathered from structured tests executed by each Partner Teams in conjunction with the Government. Testing will be focused on exercising USV autonomy capabilities under increasingly more complex operational scenarios. The Government intends to integrate the assessment data into a planned future agreements action; the Government reserves the right to change or abandon planned future agreements actions based upon the results of the assessment.
The Government requires that all hardware and software systems developed, integrated, or otherwise supplied under this solicitation adhere to best practices for open architecture systems engineering. This means that the Partner Teams shall provide solutions that are modular, decomposable, replaceable, substitutable, and interchangeable so that functional components such as plant control, localization, navigation, sensing, perception, planning, world modeling, behavioral, and other functional components may be used from a variety of vendors through well defined open interfaces.
The Overlord Program will develop and mature reliable USV autonomy within an approximate three-year timeframe with the end goal of vehicle(s) capable of sustaining autonomous operations at sea for a 90-day period without any embarked crew, and will involve integration and test of payloads for Electronic Warfare (EW), Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW), and/or Strike Warfare (STW).
The prototyping effort will include provisions for a small crew (8-12 people) necessary to test and evaluate reliability and autonomy. The vehicle(s) will be converted for unmanned operation, and be capable of operating in an unmanned mode, but retain an (optional) crew for safety and evaluation. The program will use experimentation with large-scale prototypes as the primary method for technology maturation and risk reduction.
While the Navy has fielded, or is in the process of fielding, several USV types with various levels of autonomy, substantial risk still exists with regard to the integration of autonomous USVs with manned fleet assets as a part of normal peacetime and wartime operations. The Overlord Program will develop core autonomy, communications, and C2 components and field prototype USVs capable of being seamlessly operable with the fleet. The Overlord Program will have built in redundancy in all critical hardware and software systems. The program will involve integration and test of payloads for EW, ASuW, and STW.
Broadly, the USV must be capable of safe navigation, avoiding grounding and allisions, as well as avoiding collisions with other vessels in a manner consistent with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). The USV must be capable of fixing its position using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other fix sources, and must be capable of accurately sensing nearby vessels and hazards to navigation. The USV must also be capable of managing subsystems and mechanical components (e.g. engines, generators, and support equipment) to provide maximum mission readiness.
The USV will deploy mission-specific payloads. Effective payload deployment will require USV autonomy to process Command and Control (C2) data for basic mission structure, as well as link payload-specific data to support payload deployment. Communications links to support both general vehicle operation as well as payload/mission execution, to be specified by the Government, must be integrated with USV autonomy. The USV’s C2 and payload control systems, to the maximum extent possible, must integrate with existing fleet assets. C2 must be transferrable between control stations afloat and ashore.
The Overlord Program USVs must be capable of integrating into existing fleet operations and Navy Command and Control systems. The autonomy on-board the USVs will be augmented by the necessary supervisory control to support monitoring of mission execution, system security, and navigation safety. Dedicated operators on command staffs will provide the human supervision for the USV control. The USV shall be capable of being monitored and controlled by one person, and ideally multiple USVs could be supervised by one person.
Supervisory control is defined as human-aided operation required or desired to assist autonomy algorithms that become unable to proceed on their own due to technical, environmental, operational or safety issues. Supervisory control is required when the system is unable to operate autonomously, and needs a human to intercede in order to bring the system back into a state where it is able to operate on its own again. Supervisory control is bounded by available communications paths to unmanned systems. High-level autonomy must be robust to unanticipated communication outages between team members and jamming. In the event of a communications outage, the USV should still be able to perform the assigned mission. The mission autonomy should be able to recover and make adjustments as needed once communications are reestablished.
Operators at an ashore or afloat operation center will maintain Tactical Control (TACON) of the USVs at all times. USVs shall continue with loss of communication and certain actions will only be executed with human authorization. Each operations center should be capable of monitoring mission execution of USVs and a warfare commander must be able to transfer TACON to other commands as required. The Overlord Program operators will manage and direct USV operations based on higher-level command to include the monitoring of mission execution and warnings, cautions, and advisories (WCAs) of individual USVs as necessary.
For redundancy, the USV communication solution will include a minimum of two encrypted communication paths with other vessels and two communication paths with the operations center. At a minimum, USV communications will include terminals capable of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Integrated Broadcast Service (IBS), Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Low Data Rate/Medium Data Rate, UHF Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA), and UHF Link-16.
The program will provide the Navy with one or more operationally-capable leave-behind assets to use for testing and fleet experimentation. Additionally, the program will deliver a technical data package for USV autonomy that will permit construction (or conversion) of a USV with variable physical characteristics, to support future Navy acquisitions without prescribing a specific hull type.
In Phase I, the Government intends to award up to four agreements for no greater than $90M (total for up to four efforts) for maturing larger USV autonomous capabilities. Under Phase I, the Government is seeking to evaluate the Partner Teams’ developmental prototype solutions that address the autonomous operation of larger USVs to include both autonomy for vehicle navigation and hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) autonomy. The Government does not intend to provide vehicles as part of the Overlord Program. Partner Teams shall propose their method to secure, through cost-effective means, a minimum of one large-scale USV.
Approximately 12-months after the award date, Phase I will conclude with a competitive capability evaluation to determine the maturity of potential industry solutions and to assess the state of the practical with respect to USV autonomy.
In choosing a vehicle(s) for Phase I, it is necessary to understand that the following elements are required and must be present, without compromise at the end of the Overlord 3-year Program:
- Vehicle with range of at least 4,500 nautical miles, capable of operating in at least Sea State 5, with at least 80,000 lbs. of payload capacity and 75 kW of 450V, 60 Hz, threephase AC power reserved for payloads.
- Capable of continuous operation for 90 days without any manned maintenance, e.g., shifting lubricating oil or fuel oil strainers, preventative maintenance, inspection, etc.
- Perception capability to detect all vehicles greater than 7m in length within six nautical miles using radar and/or other sensors, and to fuse data from sensors into a world model. Perception must use, at a minimum, one sensor other than AIS, must maintain 360-degree coverage, and must detect all vessels and hazards at a distance which allows safe navigation in accordance with standard maritime practices.
- Path-planning autonomy capable of autonomous safe pilotage to include path planning, obstacle avoidance, and mission behaviors outside of restricted waters. Pilotage shall include the ability to navigate around charted obstacles to include buoys and waters shallower than the vehicle's depth.
The Partner Teams shall choose a vehicle that supports or that may be adapted to support a standard plant interface that may be implemented in a modular fashion to facilitate the eventual replacement of the test vehicle with a more capable vehicle. This allows the Government to decouple the autonomy solution from the target vehicle with minimal effort.
The Government intends to issue a separate solicitation for Phase II that will only be open to Phase I Partner Teams. Under Phase II, the Government intends to down-select from the Phase I Partner Teams up to two agreements for extended USV development, Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) integration (radios, HM&E autonomy technologies, C2 station, payloads), and integration with other fleet assets to deploy mission payloads. Approximately 24-months after the start of Phase II, the Overlord Program will conclude with a capstone demonstration of the overall USV capability and subsequent delivery of the USV(s) to the Government. For the capstone demonstration event, the USV(s) will conduct an extended unmanned deployment and operate payloads in coordination with manned Navy assets.
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