The Navy’s Warfare Centers are actively working to embrace the future of the fleet and in June, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division played its part by hosting an In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) of the Future Forum.

With a focus on digital twin, model-based systems engineering, live-virtual-constructive approaches and autonomy/unmanned systems, the two-day event June 19-20 featured a wide array of guest lecturers and panelists facilitating in-depth discussions on highlighted topics.

“ISEA of the Future is an initiative where we look to identify tools and processes that will enable our engineering agents to more effectively do their job and support the fleet,” said Dr. David Drazen, digital twin program manager in Carderock’s Scientific and Technical Liaison Branch. “We are hoping to leverage advancements such as data science, additive manufacturing, augmented and virtual reality, and autonomy to increase operational availability of the fleet while minimizing cost.”

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division’s technical director Paul Mann opened both days with overviews of the ISEA vision. Capt. Steve Murray, the Navy’s Major Program Manager for Surface Ship Readiness, accompanied Mann on the first day and provided the audience with a service member’s perspective of the ISEA goal. A keynote address from Rear Adm. Doug Small, Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems, headlined the second day of sessions that welcomed industrial and academic contributors to the Navy’s, along with the Department of Defense participants.

“What I am most passionate about is the people behind what we do,” Small said. “Our ability to be the best Navy in the world for a long time is because of our ability to take the latest and greatest technology and put it into the hands of the greatest Sailors in the world.”

One of the ideas in the umbrella of Small’s reference to the latest and greatest technology is the utilization of autonomous and unmanned machines. Carderock’s Reid McAllister in the Unmanned Vehicles and Autonomous Systems (UVAS) Working Group hosted the first of two Unmanned/Autonomous Systems panels on day one. The following day, Navy veteran and Director of University of Maryland UAS Test Site Matt Scassero delivered a UAS-focused lecture titled “Multi-domain and Seamless Communications.”

Scassero’s primary message was on the importance of creating secure and efficient methods of communicating to unmanned and autonomous systems. According to him, giving these systems longer ranges and the ability to operate more independently from humans requires complex communication methods rather than the point-to-point radio frequency traditionally used in unmanned machines. Along with the advancement, though, Scassero said there should be adequate means to safeguard the messages and data transferred.

“Cyber security is pushing us to have more secure communications systems, not only for safeguarding the data itself, but also the quality of the data, to make sure people can’t actually hack into our systems,” he said.

To convey the progress made in the UAS arena thus far, Scassero told the story of the first-ever delivery of a human organ on an unmanned aircraft that took place in April. The 10-minute flight from the Living Legacy Foundation in downtown Baltimore to the University of Maryland Medical Center displayed the realistic possibility of the using autonomous systems to transport supplies to Navy platforms.

Both days also featured multiple sessions on the digital twin concept. Dr. Ryan Coleman and Maxwell Danik from the Sandia National Lab gave a presentation on day two highlighting ways that engineers could use multiple technologies to build and upkeep a digital twin program. Within their lecture, Coleman and Danik showed how a link between digital twin and model-based systems engineering and how Sandia implements these technologies to reduce the development cycle duration of nuclear weapons.

Creating the Navy of the future requires an all-inclusive effort from service members and civilians alike. With initiatives like those discussed over the course of the forum, Small is confident that ISEA is steering the Warfare Centers in the right direction.

“I’ve been to the future and it’s awesome, because the ISEA of the future is awesome,” Small said.

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