Editor’s Note:
This is the first article in a series-- that depicts the ongoing testing of unmanned technology from NIWC Atlantic's Unmanned Naval Innovation Team (UNIT).

TROIA, PORTUGAL— Engineers from the Unmanned Naval Innovation Team (UNIT) at Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic in Charleston, South Carolina, took technology designed to improve the command and control (C2) capabilities of self-driving boats to a demonstration in Portugal.

Self-driving boats or Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) are designed with layers of technology inside them known as Unmanned Systems (UxS). A UxS can take the form of a hardware, software, and/or digital program.

UNIT brought the UxS “Vesuvius Spiral 2” to Centro de Experimentação Operacional da Marinha (CEOM) — or Portuguese Navy Operational Experimentation Centre — off the coast of Troia, Portugal. The team participated in an operational experiment April 16-24 where they demonstrated the system’s advanced C2 capabilities as well as the quality of its telemetry data — information automatically collected from a remote source using sensors and other devices.

“This directly increases warfighter readiness by reducing operator workload, accelerating decision-making, and delivering accurate, real-time sensor data to the tactical edge,” said Michael Grass, NIWC Atlantic UNIT program manager. “These advances translate into greater mission effectiveness and enable distributed operations that enhance survivability and lethality in high-threat environments.”

While Portugal served as the primary test site, there were also associated coordination efforts with other partner nations. Specifically, the U.S. 6th Fleet was able to control unmanned systems in Portugal using Vesuvius Spiral 2 from a staged Mission Operation Center (MOC) in Naples, Italy.

"The strategic advantage of heterogeneous vehicle control from the MOC cannot be overstated. It allows us to rapidly adapt to evolving threats by reallocating resources in real time, something that was impossible in traditional siloed command structures," said David Bate, UNIT Lead network engineer.

Vesuvius Spiral 2 also increases real-time situational awareness by validating the ability for a single operator to manage multiple, unmanned platforms — such as air, surface and subsurface vehicles.

"The future of maritime operations hinges on our ability to seamlessly control diverse vehicle assets from a centralized command center. One operator managing multiple platforms isn't just about efficiency—it's about transforming how we project power and gather intelligence across vast maritime domains," said Eric Stephenson, UNIT Lead systems engineer.

"When a single operator can command air, surface, and subsurface autonomous vehicles simultaneously, we create a force multiplier that dramatically expands our operational footprint without expanding our personnel requirements," Stephenson said.

The testing involved collaboration between U.S. Navy personnel — including active-duty service members — and the Portuguese Navy. Representatives from United States European Command (EUCOM), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other partner organizations also participated.

“Testing in Portugal allows us to partner with allied forces, challenge our systems in unfamiliar settings, and ensure our solutions meet coalition standards,” said Grass. “It's a valuable proving ground for developing capabilities that must work seamlessly in multinational operations.”

Multiple USV trials were conducted in tandem with planned demonstration directives from the 6th Fleet and the NIWC Atlantic Vesuvius team, including Automatic Target Recognition (ATR), which enables unmanned vessels to navigate complex environments and more. The USVs were used to test multiple systems at one time, through a central U.S government-owned control plane.

"The evolution of ATR technology represents a fundamental shift in how we process battlespace information. When machines can reliably distinguish friend from foe across diverse environments, we dramatically reduce both cognitive load and decision timelines," said Jamie Lyle, NIWC Atlantic Researcher focused on computer vision and machine learning applications.

Additionally, stakeholders from NIWC Atlantic, Project Overmatch, Commander Task Force 66 (CTF-66), F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office (JPO), Joint Test and Evaluation (JT&E), Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) and MITRE (a non-profit organization that manages federally funded research and development centers) met for a three-day technical exchange meeting to discuss new technologies and innovations.

“It’s broadened my perspective,” Grass said. “Seeing how other nations approach similar challenges has sparked new ideas and improvements to our own systems. Personally, it’s been both humbling and motivating to contribute to a capability that could be used not just by our forces, but in support of shared global security objectives.”

Building on lessons learned from the Portugal demonstration, the NIWC Atlantic UNIT will further demonstrate the Vesuvius Spiral 2 capability in Poland, where it will be used to train Army service members to leverage unmanned wartime technology in the evolving combat environment.