Future Unmanned Concept of Operations (CONOPs) - Supporting Future Expeditionary and Joint Forcible Entry Forces

As expeditionary and forcible entry warfighters, American forces have come to depend on safe deployment into theater and the ability to gain and maintain air, space and maritime superiority. The Department of Defense (DoD) future operating environment will be challenged with national and international scenarios that will further strain the limited deployment capacity of U.S. military units. The majority of these challenges and opportunities are likely to be in the littorals—the congested and diverse regions where the sea and land mass merge. In 2003, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments defined anti-access as enemy actions that inhibit military movement into a theater of operations, and area-denial operations as activities that seek to deny freedom of action within areas under the enemy's control. The enemy's development and proliferation of anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) weapon systems impede the ability of the U.S. expeditionary (see Figure 1) and joint forcible entry forces (see Figure 2) to conduct follow-on air-ground operations (AGO) and neutralize the threat. Establishing a future A2/AD CONOP is imperative in assessing key requirements for the tactical and strategic deployment of autonomous platforms to incapacitate A2/AD threats and pave the way for effective manned operation in follow-on phases of the conflict (see Figures 3 and 4).