Silent Killer! US Navy Is Building A Family Of ‘Undersea Vehicles’

 

The US Navy intends to employ extra-large underwater drones for deterrence against China. These underwater drones could be used for offensive or intelligence-gathering missions at a much lower cost than conventional submarines.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC), Pacific, in San Diego, California, on September 28. During his visit, Austin was briefed about the current status of the development of unmanned submarines and surface ships.

“The environment we’re operating in is very sophisticated,” Austin said in response to one of the briefs. “We need every piece of collaboration we can get. You all are operating on the cutting edge here, and I challenge you to keep pushing yourselves and innovating for the war-fighter,” he added.

The US Navy is increasingly moving toward the concepts of distributed lethality, which envisions a distributed, more survivable, more lethal force that is difficult to target.

This was witnessed in this year’s RIMPAC exercise, where the US Navy and its partners from 26 nations tested many unmanned live-fire capabilities.

China has amassed a massive arsenal of high-precision missiles, which could severely disrupt the American maritime capabilities in an attack if critical functions are concentrated within a fleet of a small number of large ships.

Therefore, there is a need for a force structure that is mobile and survivable, and this can be achieved through undersea and surface drones, mainly because of the technological advances that enable integrated operations, even if warships and unmanned vessels are dispersed.

US Navy is actively investing in Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) to maintain superiority in the undersea domain.

The service aims to create a family of UUVs, working on several platforms, like the Snakehead large displacement uncrewed undersea vehicle (LDUUV), Orca Extra Large (XLUUV), and the Lionfish Small UUV.

In July, the Navy tested a prototype of the Snakehead UUV for end-to-end intelligence preparation of the operational environment mission which involved creating detailed maps of the sea floor and identifying threats or other objects of interest, knowledge of which is essential for a submarine to enter or exit a particular area without being detected.

Snakehead is a modular, reconfigurable, multi-mission UUV that can be deployed from submarines and surface ships. With roughly the same size as a SEAL delivery vehicle, it is the US Navy’s largest submarine-launched UUV, with a payload capacity beyond small and medium UUVs.

Before that, in April, the Navy unveiled the Orca XL-UUV. It will initially focus on Concept of Operations development, payload integration work, and mine warfare.

In the future, the Orca could perform mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, electronic warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence and surveillance, reconnaissance, and even strike missions.