This article first appeared at AviationWeek.com.
Raytheon plans to launch a small unmanned air vehicle from a submerged U.S. Navy submarine early next year to demonstrate its concept for extending the boat’s sensor range in littoral operations.
Last month the company demonstrated its UAV launch concept under Phase 1 of the Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities (Sothoc) program funded by the Office of Naval Research and the Submarine Force.
The concept uses a submarine launch vehicle (SLV) containing the electrically powered UAV and stored on board as an all-up round. Ejected from the submerged submarine’s trash disposal unit, the SLV is weighted to descend to a safe distance from the boat, then shed the weight and inflate a float collar.
The collar is pulsed to control the rate of ascent. As it approaches the surface, the SLV deploys a water drogue to provide stabilization and a vane to align it into the wind. The tube then pivots to a 35-degree angle and ejects the UAV.
“The SLV is a method of getting a UAS to the surface dry, then transitioning it to the air,” says Jeffrey Zerbe, Raytheon’s Sothoc program director.
The deployment concept was demonstrated in September at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center’s shallow water test range at Narragansett Bay, R.I., where two SLVs were deployed over the side of a surface ship.
“The vehicles descended to 80 feet reverted to positive buoyancy, floated to the surface, stabilized in variable sea states, aligned into the wind, and then launched an inert representative UAS at precise orientation and velocity,” according to Raytheon.
In early November, Zerbe says, the company plans to conduct a second “over-the-side” demonstration from a ship off Point Mugu, Calif. This time the SLV will deploy an actual UAV, which will then conduct a full maritime interdiction mission profile.
This will be followed early next year by a launch from a submerged submarine, probably a Los Angeles-class boat off Hawaii, under Phase 2 of the program, says Zerbe. Raytheon has already demonstrated integration of its multi-vehicle control software into the submarine’s BYG-1 combat system, he says.
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– Christian
it’s exhilarating to see the progress being made in unmanned systems by the navy. this particular launch reminds me instantly of the cormorant morphing-wing project lockheed worked on for a while; i had a brief academic interest in the project last summer and got a chance to talk with some of the folks who worked on it. the cormorant was designed to fit in the missile tubes of trident subs, this design goes out through the garbage chute. pretty soon they’ll be able to make their own holes in the hull!
uavs have been so important on the ground that the push now is how to best share access to them. the navy has been able to diverge and explore multi-agent, multi-modal sensor nets (PLUSnet et. al.) to redefine ocean sensing. low angle of observance solutions are “on the horizon”.
it’s a wonderful time to dig robots.
Radical, to counter pirates & Recon pre SEAL Ops.
Must have for those SSGNs & SSNs.
Nice option.
Give Real Time feed to C3I Ops,
launching anything from a sub does increase possibility of subs’ detection, slight perhaps, but real.
instead: in August, Navy requested info from manufacturers about lighter-than-air craft; airships as UAVs which would have week loiter time. That length of time allows the airship to travel from locations thousands of miles away from areas of interest…thus protecting subs’ location
more importantly, the same request also sought information on MANNED airships, from small single man sized up to craft that would carry 500 tons.
Carrying a pilot instead of being “unmanned”, puts human brain where a robot currently in in UAVs, increases capabilities a thousandfold.
Large,MANNED rigid, amphibious airships (NO BLIMPS!)would be able to carry special ops forces from stateside to any location on earth, within 72 hours. Large rigid airships can carry battalion sized units/hundreds of tons of cargo to any destination on earth, including front lines, from statestide, within 72 hours, with no fuel needs/costs.
militaryairships dot blogspot dot com