Post-conference Focus Day: Thursday, 29th April, 2010

UNMANNED VEHICLES AND THE FUTURE SHAPE OF NAVIES

09:30- 13:00, Facilitated by Dr. Norman Friedman, International Naval Consultant and Author

Unmanned vehicles are now entering naval service in sufficient numbers to suggest that they can or will have profound effects on the way navies operate. They present new ways of operating and unmanned craft may also change the economics of current types of naval operations; for example, the use of unmanned combat aircraft can dramatically reduce the operating and lifecycle costs of aircraft carriers.

Ships now being built are likely to be operating over the next thirty or more years, the period during which unmanned air, surface, and underwater vehicles become mature. Far too often, the main potentials of unmanned vehicles are either to reduce risk to personnel or to expand the footprint of a conventional ship or airplane. These vehicles offer much more, as this workshop will show.

Sessions to be covered include:

• Current unmanned naval vehicles and their missions
• Likely developmental paths, using current examples
• Future missions for unmanned vehicles
• Intersection of network-centric operations and unmanned vehicles
• Potential of naval unmanned air vehicles, fixed- and rotary-wing
• Potential effect of unmanned air vehicles on carrier economics and operational envelopes
• Designing surface ships and submarines to employ unmanned vehicles effectively

Facilitated by:

Dr. Norman Friedman
International Naval Consultant and Author

Dr. Norman Friedman is an internationally renowned expert on naval technology and systems. Dr. Friedman was Deputy Director of National Security Studies at the Hudson Institute from 1973- 84, specialising in the analysis of the Allied/Soviet Naval Balance, and served in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy from 1985-94. He has lectured at the US Naval War College, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Australian and Canadian National Staff Colleges and the British Ministry of Defence. He currently lectures on Net-Centric Warfare, the current focus of US Naval Policy, in both its policy and technical contexts, on Undersea and Naval Air Warfare, on Naval Command and Control, Maritime Surveillance and many related subjects.