The U.S. Marine Corps has used aircraft-deployed, sensor-equipped buoys to study and quantify elements of the sea as a warfighting zone.

MV-22 Osprey aircraft deployed cylindrical buoys during the recent Trident Warrior exercise to help the military service branch gain more warfighting insights about the sea and near-shore environments, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.

The floating buoys descend to the ocean's depths to gather data then transmit findings to the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO) after returning to the surface.

“Deployment of these floats creates a more vivid picture of how the ocean and atmosphere interact, including wind speed and water temperature and salinity,” said Scott Harper, a program officer in the Ocean Battlespace and Expeditionary Access Department within the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

NAVO will continue to receive the buoy-gathered data over a span of several months.

Greg Allen, chief of strategy and communications at the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), told C4ISRNET in an interview published Monday that the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), if signed into law, would provide JAIC acquisition authority and enable it to move faster. 

“If you have your own acquisition authority, then you are probably your own top priority,” Allen said. He said the NDAA would allow JAIC to secure contract vehicles that are relevant to AI initiatives across the Pentagon and an example of that is a vehicle related to testing and evaluation.

“The nice thing is that if you can get these testing and evaluation functions specified in contract performance of work statements. Then [because of] what the JAIC has learned by executing its projects over the past two years, we can actually codify that and contract vehicles that reflect our contracting best practices,” Allen said.

Allen also mentioned JAIC’s progress in the joint warfighting initiative, including the award of a potential $800 million contract in May and advances related to the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept.

When asked about metrics for JAIC’s individual programs, Allen cited aircraft uptime in the predictive maintenance effort. He also shared his insights on the center’s transformation to JAIC 2.0 and discussed what the move means for DOD.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released two final rules that will require remote identification of unmanned aircraft and permits small drone operators to fly at night and over people under specific conditions.

The Remote ID rule covers all operators of aerial drones requiring FAA registration and provides identification of unmanned aircraft in flight and their control stations’ location to help law enforcement and national security agencies ensure public safety, FAA said Monday.

The Operations Over People and at Night rule applies to Part 107 drone operators and will eliminate the need to secure a waiver for operations at night and over people based on four categories. The rule directs small drone operators to have their remote pilot identification and certification with them during operations and requires them to “complete updated recurrent training that includes operating at night in identified subject areas.”

“The new rules make way for the further integration of drones into our airspace by addressing safety and security concerns,” said FAA Administrator Steve Dickson. “They get us closer to the day when we will more routinely see drone operations such as the delivery of packages.” 

The two rules will take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The Remote ID rule gives drone producers 18 months to start manufacturing systems with Remote ID and additional year for operators to begin using drones with Remote ID.