By Pierre Tran
Paris – Companies around the world have noted the significance of the uncrewed surface vehicle (USV), or sea drone, as could be seen at Euronaval, an international trade show for every kind of military vessel and maritime kit, which ran Nov. 4-7.
The market potential for the USV stemmed from Ukraine’s necessity proving to be a near mother of maritime invention, with locally built USVs used to deadly effect against the Russian navy in the wake of the 2022 invasion ordered by Moscow.
Ukrainian civilians working in a garage after that Russian incursion allowed Kyiv to deploy USVs cobbled together from remote controlled speed boats with an ad hoc communications link and an explosive warhead.
That effective use against the Russian fleet, seen as one of the world navies, pointed up the sea drone as a weapon which carried a critical marketing label, namely combat proven.
There has been a “technology evolution” on drones, Pierre Eric Pommellet, chairman of Gican, said Oct. 24 in a virtual press conference on Euronaval. Drones were previously mostly in aeronautics, he said, now they were used for surveillance and combat at sea.
That could be seen with maritime drones in the Red Sea and Black Sea, he added.
The Houthis irregular force, based in Yemen, have sailed USVs loaded with explosives to strike commercial shipping and Western warships on patrol in the Red Sea, Reuters reported July 3. The Iranian-backed militia may have been inspired by Ukrainian sea drones, the news agency reported, with the prospect of shipping companies paying higher war risk premiums for sailing in the Red Sea.
Pommellet is also executive chairman of Naval Group, a builder of warships and submarines, is majority held by France. Electronics company Thales holds a minority stake in NG.
MARTAC Adds To Devil Ray Offerings
There were press briefings and announcements on sea drones, which were on display among reduced scale models which included aircraft carriers, frigates, attack submarines, and auxiliary tankers at the show.
Maritime Tactical Systems, or MARTAC, announced Nov. 2 the commercial launch of its Devil Ray T18, an addition to its offerings of Devil Ray USVs. The 5.8-meter sea drone could be used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).
The new sea drone shared a common operating system with the T12 and T24, said Stephen Ferretti, chief marketing officer, and that offered interoperability, with operators moving from one model to another.
The T18 could also operate as part of a swarm, he said. The new sea drone could be transported in a 20-foot box container, allowing stealthy shipping, he said. A standard Conex box container allowed the sea drone to be transported by aircraft such as V-22 Osprey tilt rotor, CH-53 helicopter, or C-130J transport plane.
The T18 offered speed and endurance, with “60 plus” knots, sailing 300 nautical miles and a payload of 750 pounds, he said. The drone, which could sail in sea state of three to five, had undergone months of extensive tests. The USV was due to go into production in 2025.
The drone was equipped with a collision avoidance system, required “very low maintenance,” and the architecture encompassed the use of artificial intelligence, he said. The drone was based on commercially available technologies.
MARTAC, based in Melbourne, Florida, presented its smaller Mantis T12 sea drone at the 2022 Euronaval show.
That Mantis range was designed for littoral or near-littoral use, while the larger Devil Ray range was intended for 300-1,000 nautical miles.
The company had clients operating its USVs in some 12 nations, including the Asia/Pacific.
USVs effectively served as naval scouts, a defense analyst said, capable of feeding data into a warship’s fire control system, such as Aegis. They were “pieces of a puzzle,” he said, providing sensor input to a “mesh network.”
USVs could be launched from the land or from other vessels, serving as extension of the capital ship with “off-board capabilities,” the analyst said.
“Technological change leads to behavioural change,” the analyst said.
Naval Group’s Combat Sea Drone
Naval Group, its Sirehna unit, and industrial partner Couach announced Nov. 5 on the NG stand the commercial launch of Seaquest S, a sea drone billed as its “first unmanned surface vehicle for combat operations.”
The 9.3 meter vessel was designed for ISR and targeting missions, and could carry various mission packages, including weapons. Couach built the hull.
The sea drones would extend a ship’s capability, allowing detection earlier and further away, at reasonable cost, said Aurore Neuschwand, NG head of unmanned systems.
Seaquest could be “integrated” to a frigate, landing helicopter dock or supply ship, operating from ship or shore, she said.
NG posted a corporate video on a social platform, showing the Seaquest, in naval gray, speeding at sea before being lifted out of the waters and brought onboard the port side of a French navy FREMM multimission frigate.
Studies were under way for antisubmarine warfare (ASW), with the drone carrying NG light depth charges and Thales sonar buoys, the company said. The next step was to work on swarm operations.
The drone had remote and autonomous modes, and used the same fuel as the mother ship.
Development of the sea drone took less than a year, Patrick Pennamen, chief executive of Sirehna said. The drone was modular and scalable, with the four modules consisting of the platform, communications, sensors, and effectors. The drone was intended for day and night operations.
The drone carried a foldable mast, and was equipped with Rohde and Schwarz electronic warfare kit, and an Ericsson radar.
NG funded the project, which cost 10s of millions of euros. The company was looking for export sales, and the drone could fit on warships such as the Babcock Arrowhead 140 frigate, an industry executive said.
Babcock, a British company which maintains the Royal Navy fleet and builds warships, had its stand further into the vast exhibition hall. The Arrowhead 140 is the export version of the Type 31 general purpose frigate Babcock is building for the British navy.
The Type 31 is is based on the Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate hull. This is a Danish company and a Danish frigate.
Saab Shows System Control
Saab gave Nov. 5 a media presentation of its Autonomous Ocean Core, a software package for system control of sea drones, both on the surface and underwater.
The company showed live video of a Saab CB90 Enforcer 3.2 combat boat under full autonomy in a Swedish fjord, some 1,800 km away. An aerial drone provided visual link for the Saab stand at the show. The C90 patrol boat carried a Saab Sea Giraffe 1X 3D radar.
The autonomy system was designed to make vessels and vehicles do “dull, dirty and dangerous” jobs, and keep people safe, said Peter Karlstrom, project manager for naval autonomy and artificial intelligence.
Autonomy was a “core technology,” he said, allowing “lean manning” to do more with fewer people. An autonomy package would deliver the “trinity” of perceiving information, making decisions, and taking action, he said.
April 27, 2023 marked the launch of the Ocean Core project, which was not fully mature, he said. The autonomy project was based on Saab’s Enforcer research and development project launched in 2018, also plugged into a CB90 patrol boat. R&D work on an Enforcer 3.1 boat was conducted in San Diego, with further work on the Enforcer 3.2 boat in Sweden.
The autonomy package has already been tested with a remote weapon system, he said. The next step was to develop sensors and effectors for surveillance, mine detection and weapons.
An assault mode for the system offered a high level of unrestricted autonomy, without continuous link, “intended for high-risk situations, needing maximum operational autonomy,” the company said on its website.
The other modes were local safety and external safety, with the former intended for training, and the latter bringing the vessel to a stop when connection was lost.
The autonomy package was “platform agnostic,” he said, and the software could be plugged into the combat management system on frigates.
Exail Expands DriX Range
Models of other new USVs included the DriX 0-16, a 12-ton sea drone from Exail, which joined the smaller DriX H-8. The latter came to the market in 2017. The unit price of a DriX 0-16 was around €6 million ($6.4 million) and was capable of staying seven days at sea in autonomous mode, with a range of 2,500 nautical miles.
The DriX family has sparked strong military interest for surveillance, mine countermeasures, and anti-submarine warfare, reported Mer et Marine, a specialist publication.
Exail is the company formed from the 2022 merger of ECA Group and iXblue, specialists in surface and underwater drones. The Exail chairman is Hervé Guillou, former executive chairman of Naval Group.
Ukrainian Sea Drones Strike Hard
Ukrainian USVs forced the Russian navy to pull back warships and support vessels from the Black Sea, opening up a sea link vital for Kyiv’s shipment of much needed grain to the world market.
The Ukrainian drone fleet included the Magura, Mamay, Mykola, Stalker, and Sea Baby. The Magura V5, named after a Slavic cloud maiden and warrior goddess, has hit 18 Russian warships, disabling or sinking the enemy vessels, Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian media outlet, reported Aug. 16.
Ukraine’s SBU security service sailed the Makura in swarms, a collective approach which kept drone warheads down to 250 kg while delivering “critical damage” to Russian warships, said the commander of special unit group 13, Kyiv Independent reported.
France to Decide on New Aircraft Carrier
The French authorities were due to decide in the next few months whether to fit two or three catapults in an order for a U.S.-built Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) for a planned next-generation aircraft carrier, said an officer of the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office at the show.
That decision was expected by the end of the year or early next year, the DGA officer said.
If three catapults were fitted, that would be one more than the two U.S.-built, steam-powered launchers on the Charles de Gaulle carrier. The planned successor is due to enter service in 2028 after three years of sea trials.
The US state department approved in December 2021 the sale of electromagnetic aircraft catapults and arresting gear, worth an estimated $1.3 billion. France had requested procurement of one electromagnetic system with two launchers and one advanced arrestor gear, in a three-engine configuration, at that time.
The budget for manufacture of the carrier has doubled to some €10 billion from previous estimates, media reports said.
The armed forces minister is expected officially to launch the carrier program next year, although advanced orders were reported to have been placed in April by the main contractors, NG, Chantiers de l’Atlantique, and TechnicAtome. The latter will build the nuclear boiler.
The defense ministry displayed a model of the planned carrier, whose weight has risen 5,000 tons to 80,000. That model was older and simpler than the one on display at the NG stand.
Show Organizer
Sogena, which organized the naval exhibition and conference, is a unit of Groupement des Industries de Construction et Activités Navales (Gican), a trade association.
Some 480 exhibitors came to the show, 10 percent up from the 2022 exhibition, from 30 nations. There were 106 official delegations, with 25 navy chiefs of staff.
The French authorities, including the Armed Forces Ministry, the Navy, and Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office, backed the Euronaval show, which invited naval delegations from around the world.
Featured photo: Devil Ray T18
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