Page 13 - ADT NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2021 Online Magazine

Surface Vessels) as motherships for unmanned maritime vehicles. And [ UNMANNED SYSTEMS ]
countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and South Korea are actively working on this concept.

Tension The U.S. Navy is moving towards a mixed fleet of crewed and auton-
omous vessels. It is developing advanced capabilities such as the
SeaHunter unmanned surface vehicle (USV).
The USV is moving rapidly towards becoming operational system,
and it points to a future naval warfare environment where autono-
mous robotic systems operate alongside traditional warships. The
FUTURE NAVAL WARFARE 40-meter prototype trimaran SeaHunter, an experimental subma-
rine-tracking vessel, recently transited between Hawaii and San
ENVIRONMENT WILL SEE Diego without human intervention. It has yet to be used operation-
AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC ally, but it is only a matter of time before such vessels are deployed.
SYSTEMS OPERATING ALONGSIDE
TRADITIONAL WARSHIPS The U.S. Navy wants to develop and procure three types of large
unmanned vehicles (UVs) called Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles
(LUSVs), MediumUnmanned SurfaceVehicles (MUSVs), and
Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs). The Navy’s
Jay Menon proposed FY2022 budget requests US$434.1million in research
and development funding for these large UVs and their enabling
technologies.
Future naval forces will exploit a mix of tra-
ditional crewed vessels and unmanned Meanwhile, a Ghost Fleet Overlord unmanned surface vessel, part
autonomous systems as part of an effort to of a partnership between the U.S. Defense Department's Strategic
shift to a new fleet architecture. Capabilities Office and the Navy, early this year traveled a distance
of more than 4,700 nautical miles, almost entirely autonomously.
Navies around the world have assigned sur- Afterward, it participated in exercise Dawn Blitz where it again
face ships, such as the U.S. (LCS and Zumwalt, spent nearly all of its underway time operating autonomously.
Spearhead class EPF), Russia (Project 22350),
Japan (30FFM) and Singapore (Littoral Mission "This is a historic milestone for the program and the Navy. It rep-

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