Future command and control of autonomous collaborative systems – Annual report 2025

Authors:

  • Peter Svenmarck
  • Per-Anders Oskarsson
  • David Myrén
  • Anders Green
  • Emelie Robertsson
  • Anna Pestrea

Publish date: 2025-12-19

Report number: FOI-R--5889--SE

Pages: 32

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • command and control
  • naval warfare
  • autonomous systems
  • UAV
  • USV
  • UUV
  • war gaming

Abstract

Autonomous systems are under development for several domains of the Swedish Armed Forces: in the air, on land, on the sea surface, and subsurface. When autonomous systems are used together with manned systems, they improve situation awareness and increase fire power. The development of autonomous systems affects command and control and it is important to understand these consequences for effective command and control and use of autonomous systems. This report summarises studies that were performed within the project Future Command and Control of Autonomous Systems during 2025. The project studies how military personnel use autonomous systems for naval warfare. The studied autonomous systems were a medium size drone with radar, a small surface vehicle with sonar and torpedo, and a medium-size underwater vehicle with sonar. These autonomous systems were given representative properties in a tactical wargame for naval warfare. The results show that autonomous systems complement the capabilities of manned systems. Drones with radar improve situation awareness about surface targets and surface and underwater vehicles improve situation awareness about subsurface targets. Since surface and underwater vehicles are unmanned, they are used closer to the enemy for first contact engagements. Discussions are ongoing with the Swedish Naval Combat School about further development of the tactical wargame.