Zitat:The Market Leader: Turkey’s Indigenous Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs)

Zitat:The small size of Turkey's AUSVs means that they can easily be transported by air and road and even deploy from the well deck of landing platform docks (LPDs) and landing helicopter docks (LHDs). For Turkey specifically, this could see the TCG Anadolu LHD becoming the first ship in the world to deploy both fixed-wing UCAVs and AUSVs. Other naval vessels like frigates can similarly launch and recover AUSVs using their onboard crane. This significantly expands their range and scope, and allows surface combatants to carry their own escorts in the form of AUSVs when sailing into contested waters like the Strait of Hormuz. The design of larger USVs by Turkey lays well within expectations for a country that appears dead set on becoming the market leader in unmanned platforms over, on and below the waves.

Zitat:The Turkish ULAQ AsuW - G/M by ARES Shipyard and Meteksan Defence will be the first armed unmanned surface vessel (AUSV) to carry anti-ship missiles. Four 220+km-ranged Atmaca AShMs can be carried in addition to a 12.7mm RWS.

Zitat:US Navy operates Saildrone Explorer USV in the Persian Gulf

According to information published by the U.S. MoD on January 28, 2022, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) began operating the Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel (USV) in the Persian Gulf. [...] Task Force 59, NAVCENT’s dedicated staff for new unmanned systems and artificial intelligence discovery, initiated Saildrone operational testing off the coast of Bahrain one month after launching the Saildron in the Gulf of Aqaba.

The Saildrone launched in the Gulf of Aqaba on Dec. 12, successfully operated at sea continuously for more than 30 days, demonstrating persistence in a dynamic maritime environment.

Zitat:Russia’s New ‘Poseidon’ Super-Weapon: What You Need To Know

Russia has raised tensions further by placing its nuclear forces on higher alert, termed "special regime of combat duty". We take a closer look at one of its most controversial weapons. Among a myriad of new and impressive 'super weapons', Poseidon stands out. [...]

Poseidon is an ‘Intercontinental Nuclear-Powered Nuclear-Armed Autonomous Torpedo’. It is a giant torpedo which can hit coastal cities with devastating results. Compared to an intercontinental ballistic missile it is very slow, but possibly unstoppable.

Russia maintains that it can also be used as a tactical nuclear weapon against warships. High-value targets would include aircraft carriers. This is harder to rationalize than the second-strike nuclear deterrence role, but it is a constant theme. Ever since it was first revealed in November 2015, then known as Status-6. it has been described as a multirole system.

The weapon’s expected speed, around 70 knots, is fast enough to make it realistically uncatchable to existing torpedoes. And its operating depths, perhaps as deep as 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) puts it beyond reach. Western planners will have to develop new weapons to intercept it. And that will take considerable time and investment. [...] Although the weapon is large, we estimate in the region of 100 tons, it is still small by nuclear submarine standards.

Zitat:Sonardyne Collaborates MSubs On Autonomous Naval Platforms [...]

MSubs and Sonardyne have signed a strategic partnership to advance the capabilities of long endurance, autonomous underwater platforms for the UK defence sector.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will see the two companies working to integrate and evaluate Sonardyne’s commercial-off-the-shelf navigation, communications, and imaging payloads into MSubs 9 m-long extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV) to provide naval forces with enhanced situational awareness across the underwater battlespace.

From Plymouth, south-west England, where both companies have research, trials, and manufacturing facilities, Sonardyne will supply and support a suite of its technologies to MSubs. These will include SPRINT-Nav X, a hybrid inertial-Doppler navigation sensor that’s suitable for GNSS-denied environments; AvTrak 6, a long-range tracking, command, and control instrument; and Vigilant, a forward-looking obstacle avoidance sonar (FLS) jointly developed by Sonardyne and sister company Wavefront Systems.

MSubs’ XLUUV has been selected by the UK’s Royal Navy to help it understand the future roles for XLUUVs for surveillance, reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions, and deliver new capabilities to the organization years earlier than otherwise be possible. [...] Today’s announcement builds on this success, with the two companies targeting further emerging opportunities from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, such as Project CETUS. This will see the design and build of an extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) which may one day work alongside the Astute-class attack submarines.

Zitat:Kongsberg Launches Latest Version Of HUGIN AUV

The latest addition to Kongsberg Maritime’s HUGIN family enhances the capabilities of the advanced HUGIN architecture, adding cutting-edge autonomy to the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). [...] The new design combines elements of HUGIN’s carbon monocoque approach used with success for the last 20 years coupled with extensive hydrodynamic modeling to refine the hull’s low-drag shape. HUGIN Edge stands out as a next-generation vehicle designed specifically to answer the performance and efficiency challenges set by the modern world.

HUGIN Edge includes significant new features and capabilities. These include an innovative forward-looking sonar design providing 3D sensing capabilities for improved trajectory planning and directional collision avoidance coupled to traditional forward scanning methodology.

Zitat:Here Is Our First Look At The US Navy’s Orca XLUUV

The US Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) just released the first pictures of the Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV). The photos shows the christening and launch of the test asset which took place on 28 April. [...]

The US Navy marked an important milestone in its effort to develop reliable undersea capability with the christening and first in-water test of the Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV) Test Asset System April 28, 2022 in Huntington Beach, California. Capt. Scot Searles, program manager for Unmanned Maritime Systems (PMS 406), representatives from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ship Programs and the Undersea Warfare Division of the Chief of Naval Operations, and Boeing executives marked the occasion. The test asset system is critical in the performance and production of the five operationally relevant prototype Orca XLUUVs. [...]

According to the U.S. Department of Defense contract award notice, the Orca XLUUV will be an open architecture, reconfigurable Unmanned Undersea Vehicle. The Orca XLUUV will be modular in construction with the core vehicle providing guidance and control, navigation, autonomy, situational awareness, core communications, power distribution, energy and power, propulsion and maneuvering, and mission sensors.

Zitat:Anti submarine warfare Unmanned Underwater Vehicle successfully tested by South Korea

According to information published by the South Korean Agency for Defense Development on June 30, 2022, the future anti-submarine warfare unmanned underwater vehicle (ASWUUV) was successfully tested near Tongyeong, South Korea. [...]

The Anti-submarine warfare unmanned underwater vehicle (ASWUUV) is a weapon system that has been under the supervision and development of the South Korean Agency for Defense Development since 2017. The ASWUUV is 6.5 meters long and weighs 9 tons. It can navigate at a speed of 3 to 10 knots by receiving power from a high-capacity fuel cell. It can be operated for up to 30 days at a maximum depth of 300 m or more.

Zitat:Report on Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles

The Navy wants to develop and procure three types of large unmanned vehicles (UVs) called Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles (LUSVs), Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MUSVs), and Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs). [...]

XLUUVs are roughly the size of a subway car. The first five XLUUVs were funded in FY2019 and are being built by Boeing. The Navy wants to use XLUUVs to, among other things, covertly deploy the Hammerhead mine, a planned mine that would be tethered to the seabed and armed with an antisubmarine torpedo, broadly similar to the Navy’s Cold War-era CAPTOR (encapsulated torpedo) mine. Under the Navy’s FY2023 five-year (FY2023-FY2027) shipbuilding plan, procurement of additional XLUUVs through the Other Procurement, Navy (OPN) account is scheduled to begin in FY2024.

Zitat:US Navy’s ORCA XLUUV 64% Over Budget, 3 Years Late

The U.S. Navy's Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV) is 64% over its original cost estimate and at least 3 years late. This is outlined in a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued 28 September 2022. [...]

The U.S. Navy is trying to deploy five large, robotic submarines to do the dangerous job of laying undersea mines. But the effort is more than 3 years behind schedule and has exceeded costs by at least $242 million. [...] The Orca XLUUV is an open architecture, reconfigurable Unmanned Undersea Vehicle. The Orca XLUUV will be modular in construction with the core vehicle providing guidance and control, navigation, autonomy, situational awareness, core communications, power distribution, energy and power, propulsion and maneuvering, and mission sensors. [...]

Although no specifications are available, one graphic used by the US Navy to represent an armed future XLUUV is particularly revealing. It shows a craft with generally the same layout as the interim Orca class, with a payload module with bomb-bay like doors along the bottom. The payload bay contains three rows of four heavyweight torpedo tubes angled to fire down through the bomb bay doors. This makes the length of the payload bay about 10 meters, giving an indication of the overall size.

Zitat:HII unveils new medium-class underwater drone

US shipbuilder HII has pulled the curtain back on its newest unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) [...].

The basic platform specifications for the new REMUS 620, such as size and weight, mirror those of the navy's Littoral Battleship Sensing-Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (LBS-AUV) and the LBS-Razorback systems, according to a company statement. The former is used by the navy's mine-countermeasures squadrons, while the latter is fielded by the US Naval Oceanographic Office and the service's submarine fleet, the 7 November statement added.

Aside from size and weight, the new REMUS 620 is a more advanced variant than the company's other 600-class UUVs, said Duane Fotheringham, president of unmanned systems at HII's Mission Technologies division. The 620 has a maximum loiter time of 110 hours and a operational range of 275 nautical miles, Fotheringham told reporters during a 7 November briefing. However, loiter time drops down to 70 hours and maximum range shrinks to 200 nautical miles, when the 620 variant is outfitted with a synthetic aperture payload, he added.

Zitat:Making it big: Asia-Pacific's increasing focus on large and extra-large UUVs

Navies in the Asia-Pacific are increasingly deploying unmanned systems to overcome the challenge of limited resources in personnel. Technological advancement in digitisation and artificial intelligence (AI) has supported such efforts. This has led to the emergence of new concepts of operations (CONOPs) such as fully unmanned mine countermeasures (MCM) formations.

The growing military competition in the Asia-Pacific, the militarisation of certain regions such as the South China Sea, and operational challenges associated with underwater warfare are some of the factors contributing to defence forces' increased focus on naval unmanned systems such as unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

A spokesperson for South Korea's Hanwha Systems, which is developing an anti-submarine warfare unmanned underwater vehicle (ASWUUV) for the Republic of Korea (RoK) Armed Forces, told Janes in late September that the company expects “the need for unmanned marine systems” to keep increasing and related markets to keep growing, given “escalating tensions” in the Asia-Pacific.

Zitat:MSubs Wins UK Royal Navy Contract For Cetus XLUUV

A £15.4 million contract for a cutting-edge crewless submarine known as Cetus XLUUV has been awarded to Plymouth firm MSubs by the Royal Navy. [...]

Project Cetus – named after a mythological sea monster – enhances the Royal Navy’s experimentation with autonomous underwater systems. It is the first step in developing an operational autonomous submarine that will work side-by-side with crewed submarines – including the Astute-class hunter-killers and their successors – or independently. Its maximum operational depth will exceed that of the current submarine fleet, meaning Cetus will equip the Royal Navy with even greater reach into the oceans in support of UK defence. It will be able to cover up to 1,000 miles in a single mission. [...]

Cetus Main specifications

Length: 12 meters
Diameter: 2.2 meters
Weight: 17 tonnes
Range: 1,000 nautical miles
Operating depth: 400+ meters
Modular design

Zitat:World’s Largest Submarine Drone Being Built In Germany

Uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) are getting bigger. The latest designs, being introduced in the United States, Britain, China and elsewhere, are several times bigger than most mainstream models already in service. With size, comes greater capability and flexibility. But it also adds complexity. So much more that the evolution of UUVs can be said to be slower so far than their cousins in the air. Yet the seas are changing.

Now German shipbuilder TKMS (Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems) is preparing to start construction of their MUM underwater drone. This drone is much larger than any known type. Assembly of the prototype MUM (Modifiable Underwater Mothership) is expected to start in the summer. Overall length of the prototype will be around 25 Meters (82 feet). [...] At face value this length is arounds the same as the U.S. Navy’s Orca XLUUV (extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle) with that design’s extended payload section included. [...]

The payload space is larger than other designs. It is approximately 10 tons in-water weight and the size of a 20 foot shipping container. This allows multiple smaller UUVs, remote operated vehicles (ROVs) or objects which can be placed on the sea floor. The prototype will be powered by hydrogen fuel cell AIP (air independent power) propulsion. This will generate around 80 kW nominal power and will be supplemented by lithium-ion batteries for peak loads. The power is enough for sensors and mechanical payloads as well as the two counter-rotating screws (propellers).