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Uncrewed Systems Accomplishments

Illustration of uncrewed aircraft in the air and uncrewed marine system under water

Innovation and advancement was the theme for NOAA when it came to uncrewed systems operations for 2025. In many instances, the agency utilized uncrewed systems to gather mission critical data in support of its science, service, and stewardship mission. Substantial effort was also made to enable the development, testing, and tradition to operations of other uncrewed technologies to more effectively, efficiently, and safely meet other mission needs in the future. The NOAA Uncrewed Systems Center was at the center of these efforts, providing innovative technologies, passionate experts, and dedicated leadership to propel NOAA missions with uncrewed systems. Let’s take a look at 10 of the Uncrewed Systems Operations Center’s top accomplishments for 2025.

 

  1. Selected 18 new projects to fund that will advance NOAA’s use of uncrewed systems with partners in academia and industry from 2025 through 2027. Check out some of those funded works here.
  2. Supported over 30 distinct projects across NOAA to develop, test, and operate uncrewed systems to gather mission critical data. Notable milestones for these projects include:
    1. NOAA Global Systems Laboratory and partners at the University of Nebraska Lincoln utilized high performance computing simulations to inform the future roll out of a vertical uncrewed aircraft weather profile network for use in improving weather forecasts across the United States.
    2. NOAA National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Sea Trac conducted hypoxia surveys in the Gulf of America using an uncrewed surface vehicle at ⅓ the cost of traditional crewed surveys.
    3. NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center wrapped up a multi-year effort that used three Wave gliders to survey in under-surveyed waters around the main Hawaiian Islands, gathering valuable data in support of coastal observation and fisheries management efforts.
    4. NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory developed and validated a standardized cloud native framework based on the Internet of Things that provides a robust pipeline for transferring, storing, and visualizing data from uncrewed, crewed, and stand-alone platforms in remote or otherwise inaccessible environments. 
    5. NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program utilized Hydrus autonomous underwater vehicles operated by an industry partner to demonstrate the efficiency of using autonomous underwater vehicles for conducting remote field operations by nearly doubling the number of daily benthic surveys traditionally performed by a diver.

 

  1. Surveyed over 7,000 linear nautical miles with NOAA’s two DriX uncrewed surface vehicles in support of seafloor mapping and exploration efforts. These efforts increase the efficiency of NOAA’s current crewed survey vessels, while preparing the agency to operate their newest research ships that are under construction and will come equipped with uncrewed surface vehicles.
  2. Supported over 12,000 flight minutes in over 1,000 uncrewed aircraft flights across NOAA. These flights allow NOAA to efficiently and safely gather data across its mission areas.
  3. Provided new corporate services to enable safe and efficient use of uncrewed systems by NOAA. Example services include training for NOAA operators on four types of uncrewed aircraft and an uncrewed surface vehicle.  A NOAA-designed and owned uncrewed aircraft fleet management system was also introduced.
  4. Advanced the integration and utilization of uncrewed systems into NOAA’s hurricane reconnaissance program. Notable efforts include:
    1. Deployed 17 Blackswift S0 uncrewed aircraft into hurricanes with critical data at low altitudes that are unsafe for crewed aircraft to fly at. Efforts by uncrewed aircraft are gathering informative outlier data sets within storms, such as maximum wind speed and minimum pressure, which are both used to define the storm’s strength.
    2. Received Federal Aviation Administration Certificate of Waiver and Authorization to fly beyond visual line of sight in an established transit corridor through the national airspace, and demonstrated the ability to conduct beyond visual line of sight operations using a Dragoon Coriolis uncrewed aircraft. Future efforts will focus on incorporating the uncrewed asset into the hurricane reconnaissance program.
    3. Launched eight Oshen C-star uncrewed surface vehicles into the path of tropical systems. The platforms navigated major hurricanes like Humberto and Melissa, becoming the first uncrewed surface vehicles to intercept a category-5 hurricane.
  5. Led a monthly forum for NOAA and potential industry partners to engage in direct market research surrounding uncrewed systems. 
  6. Ensured safe operations through the development of numerous NOAA policies and guidance surrounding uncrewed systems operations. Learn more about those policies here. 
  7. Made substantial regulatory and technical progress for NOAA’s use of beyond visual line of sight operations. Current efforts focus on developing land launched uncrewed aircraft capabilities to support hurricane research and ship-based systems to increase the efficiency of marine mammal surveys. These advances have the potential to allow other NOAA missions to be conducted in previously inaccessible areas, or with reduced reliance on crewed platforms.
  8. Stood up a new Remote Operations Center at the Roger F Wicker Center for Ocean Enterprise. The Center has since been used to support 24 hour operations of the DriX uncrewed surface vehicles while they are at sea with the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson in support of hydrographic surveys.

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