 The Office of Naval Research, ONR, is developing new capability for unmanned flight, known as the Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System, ACUS. ACUS technology makes it possible for unmanned helicopters to fly and bring supplies to marines in the field with just the touch of a user's tablet, keeping pilots and air crews out of danger. What's truly revolutionary about this is the ease of use. Anyone can order supplies from their tablet without needing months of specialized training. I think what you've seen today is with the advantages and the test results you've been able to witness all of us that we might have indeed something for the future that can be very, very relevant to our missions. Well, we're out in front here. This is cutting-edge stuff. This is the selection of a landing site. No one's telling the helicopter where to land. It's being told to general region, but it's able to pick the site itself. It's able to identify the obstacles itself and then execute the landing. No one's done that before. ACUS uses laser technology to further define a flight path. It's a self-flying robot with laser beams. It doesn't get much cooler than that. Our initiative is to try to find methods through which we could have an entirely autonomous system do what a manned helicopter would do. That's one way of approaching it for the Marine Corps. The technology will be very helpful. Anything that doesn't put humans in harm's way will be good. One single helicopter loaded up with the supplies they need fly out, unmanned, land, get the gear, and then for it to fly off on its own. ACUS outfitted helicopters can provide round-the-clock support in all kinds of weather and in all conditions. Different helicopters can become ACUS-enabled to increase flexibility for multiple missions. ACUS has its origins on the battlefield where troops needed to get convoys off roads and deliver supplies by air while reducing the workload and danger for helicopter crews. What we're developing here is a system that responds to a request in the field for supplies, develops its own route, flies there by itself without any oversight, comes in, selects its own landing site and lands again without any oversight whatsoever. So this is a truly autonomous design. Autonomy is more than just unmanned vehicles, whether it be air vehicles or surface vehicles or subsurface vehicles, but it's also autonomy in manned systems relieving the load on the human in the loop, allowing the human to be raised to a higher level where other tasks can be done and autonomous systems can handle some of the things that are maybe dull or dirty or dangerous. For ACUS Phase 1 testing held at Quantico Marine Corbace in Virginia, O&R's goal was for a Marine in the field, not a professional aviator or flight controller, to be able to request resupply using a tablet or mobile device without extensive specialized training. They made it real easy to understand so even if you got no training you'd still be able to figure it out. It only took me approximately 10 minutes to pick up on how to use it in maybe another two or three minutes to start actively using it on my own without any assistance. ACUS could also assist with emergency evacuation of casualties from a combat zone. One of the long-term goals is probably to get this system where it's able to do medical evacuation or casualty evacuation where we have a wounded Marine in the field. I need help. Here's roughly where we are. I need you to land there. I could get that, I could get that wounded soldier onto the platform. It's a time sensitive issue. Get somebody here, get an asset on the ground as soon as you can. Key to ACUS Success are teamwork and partnerships supported by O&R. What is great about working with O&R is they also give us the freedom to pursue and push the envelope to advance the state of the art of the technology, which is a good thing for the Navy and Marine Corps. These partnerships resulted in two successful ACUS tests. We've got a helicopter and we've taken an autonomous landing system on that helicopter. We've been able to take that helicopter and land it at a number of unprepared sites all by touching a tablet. ACUS technology can also help manned flights be safer and more accurate. For instance, ACUS can assist the pilot while landing in challenging conditions like dust or snow. Recently, companies like Amazon have talked about delivering a book to a customer with an unmanned aircraft. We're trying to do the same thing, but I want to bring 5,000 pounds to a Marine in the field of bullets or batteries or water in that same fashion. It could even indeed maybe bring this to a rescue mission somewhere, maybe to a dangerous landing zone all with the touch of a single tablet. That's where we think this might be hugely beneficial to our Navy and Marine Corps in the future.