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Integration of functions within STUAS operator crew on board Royal Netherlands Navy ships

Many reasons exist for the military to favor unmanned systems and future missions are envisioned that require longer, more diverse and more frequent deployment of UAVs with increased mission precision. This will also result in a much higher demand on operator crews working with UAVs. With the current pressure on operational budgets, a more effective use of automation is needed in order to answer this demand. This frees operator capacity and enables integration of operator crew functions. This paper describes a case study that was performed to evaluate function integration within a Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (STUAS) operator crew on board a Royal Netherlands Navy ship during the flight phase, with the goal to extend the sensory capabilities of the ship: the Air Vehicle Operator (AVO) and the Payload Operator (PO) tasks allocated to one operator. Also a combined AVO/PO-interface was provided to this one operator and was evaluated. Results show that, for simulated maritime scenario as used in this evaluation study, integration of STUAS functions and interfaces can still lead to effective operations. Types of missions and flight phase operator tasks not addressed in this study remain subject of future study. This study should therefore be regarded as a first step of the full analysis of the possibilities for integration of STUAS functions and interfaces together with the enabling automation and support.