UK Tests Out Drone Boats for Maintaining Comms with Submersibles
Unmanned submersibles are a growing focus area for naval R&D, and they have significant potential as force multipliers. They need to communicate with shoreside personnel to receive instructions and report back. That is a challenge for every subsea system, since high bandwidth radio telecommunication does not work underwater and subs quickly lose their stealthy advantage if they have to surface. The British military's startup accelerator program, UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), is backing a novel solution: tag-along surface vessels that handle the business of receiving messages while the submersible remains below the waves.
Unmanned subsea systems - like sea glider survey devices - are already widely deployed and active. Larger unmanned systems, like the Boeing XLUUV, the Anduril Ghost Shark and MarineAI/MSubs XV Excalibur have potential for covert intelligence missions and for delivering payloads - like surveillance instrumentation or advanced naval mines. Without crewmembers aboard, these tasks could be performed at reduced cost and lower risk, assuming the secure comms question can be resolved.
UKDI thinks that a small flotilla of unmanned surface vessels may be the solution, and has selected the C-Star sail-powered mini-USV - a four-foot-long boat made by UK company Oshen - for testing. The concept is to build a passive receiver network that can loiter in an area and pick up acoustic signals from the subs. C-Star was designed to function in self-navigating "constellations," capable of stationkeeping and wide-area monitoring. The platform has been tested previously by NOAA, which has found the small size of the USV to be convenient.
The C-Stars will be carried aboard and launched by a "mother ship," an Oceanus12 - a fully autonomous 12-meter boat from ZeroUSV. This autonomous boat will carry the C-Star drones to the location of the test, then deploy them using a launch system that is integrated into its command and control software. The resulting "network" of C-Star boats will set up an acoustic sensing network over an area of ocean, suitable for receiving transmissions from an XV Excalibur.
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"Underwater operations depend on knowing where assets are and whether they’re operating as intended, but direct communications aren’t always desirable or possible," said ZeroUSV cofounder and managing director Matthew Ratsey in a statement. "This project lets us explore a different approach, using Oceanus12 to place a small constellation of surface vessels that can listen passively and provide assurance without compromising the mission."
The project scope includes initial R&D work and sea trials. UKDI noted that it could inform allied services' operating practices as well; both of Britain's "AUKUS" partners have active extra-large unmanned submersible programs.
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