More than just ‘cannon fodder’

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City (NSWCPC) is leading a collaborative and innovative effort in the development of modular, inexpensive unmanned systems. The project is known as the 'microSwarm Family of Systems' (µFOS). The project seeks to reduce cost and manufacturing complexity in unmanned vehicle systems while maintaining performance and integrating the land, sea, and air domains through modular open architecture-based command and control. The program began when Dr. Cameron Matthews, µFOS principle investigator, recognized a need for inexpensive unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) assets as targets under his counter UUV efforts. “I got into this business to break vehicles, not to make vehicles,” he said. He and his partners, Jeremy Hankins and Brian Wallace, set out to develop a concept for extremely low-cost vehicles that “could do more than just be cannon fodder.” (Source: NSWCPC 08/12/19) https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/1931792/navy-expands-innovation-through-unmanned-vehicles-saving-time-and-money/