The advent of unmanned systems reflects a huge aspect of warfare – that of protecting the warfighter – through the development of platforms that can be operated by humans from a distance, keeping them out of harm’s way.

As the U.S. Navy increases its investment in its fleet of unmanned undersea vehicles (UUV), suppliers of rugged commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) subsystems, providing solutions for mission computers, network switches, and routers, and data storage are meeting the needs of these unique platforms.

Military experts are developing new enabling technologies to help unmanned aircraft, ground vehicles, submarines, and surface vessels swarm and make decisions without human intervention.

New computer boards offer high performance, thermal management, and peripherals in a smaller size than 3U VPX, with artificial intelligence (AI) and GPGPU processing.

Industry experts say open standards are helping drive development in small-form-factor battlefield and aerospace hardware like system-on-chip and single-board computers.

merging mission requirements from global defense forces are driving new programs and applications for Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) platforms.

Courtney Howard looks at how military and aerospace requirements demand greater strength, speed, and capabilities in smaller form factors.

There is significant commonality between unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and UUV environments with standard rugged military commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) embedded solutions often applicable to both.