October 14, 2022
Maritime Unmanned recounts the promising beginning, demoralizing setbacks and ultimate success experienced by teams of Navy and Industry visionaries who committed themselves to bringing revolutionary UAS technology to a legacy Navy mission – the very first time in the history of naval aviation that an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was adopted into frontline squadron inventories, in this instance as an enabling component of the maritime patrol and reconnaissance mission. What should have been a fairly uncomplicated cross-service transition of a DARPA and Air Force-developed UAS (Global Hawk) took twenty years to nurture and mature through introduction of the concept to initial operational capability, still not expected until 2023. The book takes the reader deep inside the machinations of defense industry leadership and strategy development to overcome entrenched cultural resistance. Viewed primarily from the industry perspective, the book provides summary conclusions on what worked well, and what might have been done differently to realize an earlier operational capability.
Ernest Snowden is a 1970 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former naval aviator. After active duty, he continued in the naval reserve as an aeronautical engineering duty officer until his retirement in 2000. As a Navy civilian, he was the Business Manager for the Maintenance Policy in the Naval Air Systems Command, then staff assistant to the Deputy Director for Research and Engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In industry, he worked in business development for several companies before retiring from Northrop Grumman as director of Navy programs in Washington, DC for the company’s Aerospace Systems Sector.