The Role of Cloud-Native Infrastructures in Supporting Autonomous and Uncrewed Systems (UXS) in Operations

Abstract

This study examined the role of cloud-native infrastructures in supporting autonomous and uncrewed systems (UXS) in operations, addressing the problem that many UXS deployments depend on rigid, centralized, or insufficiently scalable infrastructures that struggle to support dynamic workloads, mission reconfiguration, fault tolerance, communication continuity, and secure data exchange in complex operational environments. The purpose of the research was to determine whether key cloud-native capabilities significantly enhance UXS operational effectiveness across case-based settings. A quantitative, cross-sectional, case-study-based design was adopted, using purposive sampling and a structured five-point Likert scale questionnaire administered to professionals engaged in logistics, industrial inspection, maritime surveillance, emergency/security, and ICT/infrastructure contexts. Out of 180 distributed questionnaires, 156 were returned, and 150 valid responses were used for analysis, producing an 83.3% usable response rate. The independent variables were scalability, flexibility, reliability, and security with data management, while the dependent variable was UXS operational effectiveness. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. The findings showed consistently high perceptions across all major constructs, with mean scores of 4.18 for scalability, 4.09 for flexibility, 4.23 for reliability, 4.15 for security and data management, and 4.21 for UXS operational effectiveness. Reliability coefficients were strong, ranging from 0.81 to 0.88. Correlation results indicated significant positive relationships with operational effectiveness, led by reliability (r = .71), followed by security and data management (r = .67), scalability (r = .64), and flexibility (r = .58), all significant at p < .01. Regression analysis further showed that the model explained 65.9% of the variance in UXS operational effectiveness (R² = .659, F = 69.98, p < .001), with reliability emerging as the strongest predictor (β = .31, p < .001), followed by security and data management (β = .26, p = .002), scalability (β = .24, p = .003), and flexibility (β = .17, p = .021). The study implies that organizations should treat cloud-native infrastructure as mission-critical operational architecture for improving resilience, coordination, adaptability, and readiness in UXS environments.