Posted in Beijing 2024-02-01 09:00.
According to the USNI website on January 30, the United States has taken the next step to build thousands of unmanned maritime attack boats.
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) solicited proposals from companies for small unmanned surface vehicles, which could be combined with the Pentagon's "Replicator" program.
DIU's Prime (mass-produced, cheap, maritime expedition) will purchase UAVs in bulk to meet the Navy's operational needs for small, autonomous attack boats capable of "intercepting" enemy ships at high speeds.
Navy analyst Bryan Clark said unmanned surface vehicles could be used in the western Pacific.
The U.S. Navy has been quietly experimenting in the Pacific Ocean with a lethal unmanned boat concept called "Hell Landscape," which would combine loitering munitions and lethal attack unmanned boats to deter amphibious invasions. A swarm of deadly autonomous unmanned boats would trigger a synchronized invasion, sow chaos in the straits, and buy time for the United States to send more troops. The program was partly inspired by low-cost drones developed in Ukraine.
Unlike the Navy's currently deployed large and medium-sized USV verification vessels, the Prime unmanned boat has a lower endurance and a range of 500 to 1,000 nautical miles. The drone can automatically cross the disputed area, wander over the designated area, detect surface threats, and then sprint at a speed of at least 35 knots to intercept enemy ships. According to the RFP, drones should also be able to team up with other drones to "perform complex autonomous behaviors that adapt to the dynamic, evasive movements of the pursued vessel."
The nature of the sprint and interception phases of small unmanned surface vehicles is similar to that of suicide surface attack drones, such as those in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
The project includes the following must-have features: the ability to carry small unmanned aerial systems to help detect enemy ships or assist with other missions, as well as the ability to support other sensors and **. Unmanned boats can be deployed from well decks or boat davits and stored in standard containers for long periods of time.
Pictured: The Manta unmanned boat equipped with a lethal miniature air-to-air missile system.
The tender covers specialized software needed for a collaborative interception capability that will enable drones to search for targets in autonomous swarms along with other unmanned surface vehicles.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense**, while this tender is the first time directly related to the Replicator project, the Navy Department and industry have been experimenting and, in some cases, deploying small unmanned underwater vehicles for years.
The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command presented a demonstration by the U.S. Fourth Fleet in the fall, in which a Textron universal unmanned surface vehicle equipped with a South Korean rocket system hit a target during a kill chain demonstration. Saildrone and Martac unmanned surface vehicles are also deployed at U.S. Command and in Task Force 59. In November last year, a MARTAC "Manta ray" unmanned surface vehicle fired loitering ammunition during a digital claw exercise in the Middle East.
The Texas-based drone company Saraonic developed the cluster ship concept according to a tender. In its concept**, four unmanned surface vehicles are airdropped into an area and, in coordination with two destroyers, detect and destroy enemy landing craft.
The US Marine Corps explores armed unmanned surface vehicles under Force Design 2030. The long-range unmanned boat is one of the first USV projects in the service and was developed under the direction of former commander General David Berger. Berger proposed the idea of large amphibious ships as carriers of unmanned systems in the future.
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