Autonomous network would manage long-range recon, strikes

The U. S. military is interested in establishing an aviation force centered primarily on existing unmanned aircraft that could carry out long-range precision surveilliance and strike missions in the Pacific theater, reports Aviation Week.

To achieve this, the Defense Department would need to design and create a largely autonomous network that would use super computers and sophisticated data links to harness the intelligence gathered, monitor the status of the aircraft involved and, if necessary, call for the appropriate type of strike, whether explosive, electronic or cyber.

As first steps, the Air Force has established an RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft systems reconnaissance center on Guam and Northrop Grumman is at work on a prototype, three-layer autonomous network system named the Heterogeneous Airborne Reconnaissance Team.