The U.S. military is committed to moving faster to get high technology into the field, according to several speakers at the opening day of AUVSI Unmanned Systems Defense. Protection. Security in Maryland.   “We need new unmanned systems, fast,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commanding general, Marine Corps Combat Development Command.   The USMC is going back to its early days of being a highly experimental command, Walsh said, resurrecting its Sea Dragon series of exercises and putting a variety of off-the-shelf systems into demonstrations to see how they fare.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 22, 2018 Contact: Tom McMahon, tmcmahon@auvsi.org, (571) 255-7786

Founded just over a decade ago in 2007 by Herbert B. Rubens, CEO, and David Holmer, CTO, Persistent Systems is a leader in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) technology, and the company claims to have the most advanced, scalable and efficient MANET radio in the world, in its MPU5 (Man Portable Unit 5) radio system. MANET effectively allows users to bring their access points with them, which allows every node — whether UGV, UAV, or something else — to be totally independent, and have the ability to relay for other nodes automatically. This provides a major benefit to users in the field, according to Louis Sutherland, vice president of business development at Persistent Systems.

Saab has announced that it will demonstrate its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training system, the AUV62-AT (acoustic target), for the U.S. Navy this summer. The AUV62-AT, an artificial acoustic system that mimics a submarine, will be evaluated by the Navy against Naval systems through the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) Program. The AUV62-AT will be operated by Navy personnel, with Saab engineers there to support it if there is any maintenance required. “With submarine usage on the rise, anti-submarine warfare training is more crucial than ever,” says Görgen Johansson, senior vice president and head of Saab´s Business Area Dynamics.