CRUSER was chartered at the direction of the Secretary of the Navy to create a broad consortium – spanning the Navy, Marine Corps, Department of Defense, academia, and industry – focused on the advancement of unmanned systems education and research in order to “shape generations of naval officers through education, research, concept generation and experimentation in maritime application of robotics, automation, and unmanned systems.” In doing so, CRUSER provides a DoD-wide community of interest to exchange research and experimentation results related to unmanned systems integration with military and naval operations.