Rear Adm. Casey Moton said the U.S. Navy is establishing a “government-controlled autonomy baseline” to set a standard for vendors to ensure compatibility of company-built systems with the branch’s unmanned vehicles, B
In an interview with Breaking Defense, Moton revealed that his team is doing research comparing industry systems and their vendors and taking into account feedback from military exercises to take this “next step” in autonomous vessel development.
As part of this effort, the division intends to select an autonomy baseline manager by the summer of next year, according to the publication.
The ABM contract winner will perform ground-level engineering services to continuously upgrade industry-developed systems for potential use in the Navy’s future unmanned vessels.
Moton noted the baseline will allow the agency to “continually inject competition” in its acquisitions while maintaining full control of the winning contractor to “help define what that system is going to be.”