“The Flying Dutchman” in American
In recent years, unmanned technology can no longer surprise anyone. The first unmanned vehicles, for example, models of the American company Tesla, took to the roads. In many countries, unmanned models of public transport are being prepared. In 2019, RZD is going to test an unmanned train at the Moscow Central Ring (MSC), and in Germany in September 2018 tested an unmanned tram. At the same time, unmanned technologies are also being lowered to the household level, penetrating into our apartments, a rather simple example - a robot vacuum cleaner.
Like many other modern technologies, they enter our daily life from the military sphere. The armies of many countries have long and quite successfully used various unmanned systems. The most famous and massively presented example is unmanned aerial vehicles, which are changing the picture of modern combat. And we are not even talking about large drum models. drones, but about the simplest small reconnaissance vehicles, which repeatedly increase the awareness of units and subunits about the situation developing in the combat area, allowing real-time monitoring of the movement of enemy manpower and equipment and adjusting artillery fire. Unmanned aerial vehicles have also become widespread in modern armies and police. Robots- sappers. In recent years, more and more information has appeared about the creation of various sea-based drones, not only surface, but also underwater. The most famous example now, which is heard by the citizens of Russia, is the Poseidon underwater drone.
A fairly extensive program for the creation of marine drones is in the United States, while it comes to the creation of both surface and underwater unmanned aerial vehicles. And here the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which has a lot of different versions, is involuntarily recalled. In general terms, the Flying Dutchman is a collective image of a ghost sailing ship, which is still sailing, but is already deprived of a crew. In modern realities, this legend becomes quite a reality, since marine drones can do without sailors and the help of a “cursed team”, while they do not inspire anyone, but attract the attention of the highest naval leadership of potential adversary countries.
In the middle of March, 2019, new information appeared in the media about the American program to create large robotized surface ships. The veil of secrecy over the US military projects was dispelled by the publication of the US defense budget for the 2020 fiscal year, reports the American authoritative publication Defense News. So it turned out that the US Navy requested 400 millions of dollars, which are planned to be spent on the development and construction of two large robotic crewed surface ships. In the future, until the end of 2025, this order may be increased to 10 unmanned ships. In total, the United States Navy is ready to invest 2,7 billion dollars in the next five years in this area.
The publication notes that the project, on which the Pentagon’s Strategic Research Department is working, receives considerable support from the US Navy. In the future, it can be completed with the creation of the first large unmanned warship on the planet, the carrier of various weapons. The main goal of the Department of Strategic Studies at the US Department of Defense is to add new qualitative improvements to existing weapons and military equipment. Until recently, the main control projects were a swarm of shock UAVs and a variant of the ship-based SM-6 missile defense transformation into a long-range anti-ship missile. At the same time, some developments in the field of creating unmanned surface ships were much less known.
According to Defense News journalists, the design and construction of new unmanned surface ships will be carried out as part of the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel project, or LUSV for short (large crewless surface ship). In turn, the basis for the implementation of the new ambitious project can serve as those developments that the US military has already received, implementing the project Overlord (Overlord), the first information about which in the public domain appeared only in 2017 year. As part of the Overlord project, the US military expects to create an unmanned combat ship, which will be equal in function to larger ships with a crew. The drone ship will have to independently determine the route, comply with all international shipping regulations, maintain contact with other ships in the group (both with crews and without crews), doing all this with the minimum possible interaction with people.
According to the information about the Overlord project presented in 2017, it was about creating medium-sized and large-displacement surface drone aircraft that could function for a long time at sea without human intervention and maintenance. At the same time it was stipulated that the ships should carry onboard at least 40 tons of payload. The seaworthiness of the ships was supposed to be up to 5 points (wave height 2,5-4 meters), the autonomy of navigation far from home shores to 90 days. In this case, the cruising range of the UAVs should have been at least 4500 nautical miles. At the same time, the program was initially developed for possible integration and testing of different payload sets: EW facilities, means for strikes against ground targets, means of anti-ship combat. It is reported that the new project submitted by LUSV retains the indicated requirements, but future serial robots will clearly surpass them.
It is known that the process of creating crewless ships will take place in two stages. In the first one-year period, proposals from various American shipbuilding companies will be collected, and in the second stage, the selection of the most promising projects. It is also known that the development of the second stage will be conducted secretly. At the same time, Rear Admiral Randy Krits, who was present at the presentation of the draft budget for the 2020 fiscal year, told media that American large unmanned surface ships would become an integral part of the so-called ghost fleet. According to him, in finished form, LUSV class ships will have to have a length of about 200-300 feet (from 61 to 91 meter) and a displacement of about a third of the promising American frigate FFG (X). Since the displacement of these frigates is known and estimated at 6000 tons, it can be said that future large unmanned surface ships will have a displacement of up to 2000 tons, which equates them to the class of modern corvettes.
At the Pentagon, the creation of a large number of unmanned ships of various classes and assignments is considered as one of the options for the development of the country's Navy. It is believed that these drones will be able to resolve the issue with a significant increase in the capabilities of the US Navy against the background of a gradual increase in the combat capabilities of the PRC fleets and Russia. In addition, the US defense department is confident that the construction of unmanned ships will reduce the cost of maintaining the fleet. It has already been said that the US Navy expects to receive unmanned ships of four different classes in the future. According to the American admirals, this will allow in practice to implement the concept of distributed marine operations (DMO - Distributed Maritime Operations). It is believed that the concept will help the United States to contain the growing influence of Beijing in the East China and South China seas by dispersing a large number of strike surface ships of the American fleet, including unmanned, in different parts of the world’s oceans, which will entail the dispersion of surveillance and intelligence from China and will provide the US Navy with the opportunity for offensive strikes.
Successful projects to create surface unmanned ships in the United States already exist. In November last year, the US Pacific Fleet reported that a Sea Hunter surface hunter arrived at the Pearl Harbor fleet base. Representatives of the US Navy underlined the fact that the arrival of an unmanned ship at Pearl Harbor is living proof that such unmanned vessels on board are able to navigate thousands of miles in the open ocean and can be at sea for months. It was a surface drone "Sea Hunter" was the first ship of this class in the US Navy. It is known that previously the new development has already interacted with submarines, destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers of the American fleet. This happened as part of the Trident Warrior exercises in 2017 and 2018.
By its construction, the apparatus demonstrated is a classic trimaran, such a design allows to achieve higher seaworthiness and stability. The length of the Sea Hunter hull is 40 meters, the maximum speed of 27 knots (50 km / h). The ship is viewed by the US naval command as a kind of springboard to the future transition to unmanned surface displacement medium displacement ships (MUSV). The main purpose of the ship at this stage is anti-submarine operations. The cost of new items was estimated at 23 million dollars, which is significantly less than the cost of an ordinary warship with a trained crew. In the future, American strategists are going to place as many of these “pawns” as well as smaller marine UAVs on the sea chessboard.
Information sources:
https://www.defensenews.com
http://www.thedrive.com
https://nplus1.ru
https://regnum.ru
Like many other modern technologies, they enter our daily life from the military sphere. The armies of many countries have long and quite successfully used various unmanned systems. The most famous and massively presented example is unmanned aerial vehicles, which are changing the picture of modern combat. And we are not even talking about large drum models. drones, but about the simplest small reconnaissance vehicles, which repeatedly increase the awareness of units and subunits about the situation developing in the combat area, allowing real-time monitoring of the movement of enemy manpower and equipment and adjusting artillery fire. Unmanned aerial vehicles have also become widespread in modern armies and police. Robots- sappers. In recent years, more and more information has appeared about the creation of various sea-based drones, not only surface, but also underwater. The most famous example now, which is heard by the citizens of Russia, is the Poseidon underwater drone.
A fairly extensive program for the creation of marine drones is in the United States, while it comes to the creation of both surface and underwater unmanned aerial vehicles. And here the legend of the Flying Dutchman, which has a lot of different versions, is involuntarily recalled. In general terms, the Flying Dutchman is a collective image of a ghost sailing ship, which is still sailing, but is already deprived of a crew. In modern realities, this legend becomes quite a reality, since marine drones can do without sailors and the help of a “cursed team”, while they do not inspire anyone, but attract the attention of the highest naval leadership of potential adversary countries.
DARPA surface drone concept
In the middle of March, 2019, new information appeared in the media about the American program to create large robotized surface ships. The veil of secrecy over the US military projects was dispelled by the publication of the US defense budget for the 2020 fiscal year, reports the American authoritative publication Defense News. So it turned out that the US Navy requested 400 millions of dollars, which are planned to be spent on the development and construction of two large robotic crewed surface ships. In the future, until the end of 2025, this order may be increased to 10 unmanned ships. In total, the United States Navy is ready to invest 2,7 billion dollars in the next five years in this area.
The publication notes that the project, on which the Pentagon’s Strategic Research Department is working, receives considerable support from the US Navy. In the future, it can be completed with the creation of the first large unmanned warship on the planet, the carrier of various weapons. The main goal of the Department of Strategic Studies at the US Department of Defense is to add new qualitative improvements to existing weapons and military equipment. Until recently, the main control projects were a swarm of shock UAVs and a variant of the ship-based SM-6 missile defense transformation into a long-range anti-ship missile. At the same time, some developments in the field of creating unmanned surface ships were much less known.
According to Defense News journalists, the design and construction of new unmanned surface ships will be carried out as part of the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel project, or LUSV for short (large crewless surface ship). In turn, the basis for the implementation of the new ambitious project can serve as those developments that the US military has already received, implementing the project Overlord (Overlord), the first information about which in the public domain appeared only in 2017 year. As part of the Overlord project, the US military expects to create an unmanned combat ship, which will be equal in function to larger ships with a crew. The drone ship will have to independently determine the route, comply with all international shipping regulations, maintain contact with other ships in the group (both with crews and without crews), doing all this with the minimum possible interaction with people.
Possible design concept of a medium surface drone
According to the information about the Overlord project presented in 2017, it was about creating medium-sized and large-displacement surface drone aircraft that could function for a long time at sea without human intervention and maintenance. At the same time it was stipulated that the ships should carry onboard at least 40 tons of payload. The seaworthiness of the ships was supposed to be up to 5 points (wave height 2,5-4 meters), the autonomy of navigation far from home shores to 90 days. In this case, the cruising range of the UAVs should have been at least 4500 nautical miles. At the same time, the program was initially developed for possible integration and testing of different payload sets: EW facilities, means for strikes against ground targets, means of anti-ship combat. It is reported that the new project submitted by LUSV retains the indicated requirements, but future serial robots will clearly surpass them.
It is known that the process of creating crewless ships will take place in two stages. In the first one-year period, proposals from various American shipbuilding companies will be collected, and in the second stage, the selection of the most promising projects. It is also known that the development of the second stage will be conducted secretly. At the same time, Rear Admiral Randy Krits, who was present at the presentation of the draft budget for the 2020 fiscal year, told media that American large unmanned surface ships would become an integral part of the so-called ghost fleet. According to him, in finished form, LUSV class ships will have to have a length of about 200-300 feet (from 61 to 91 meter) and a displacement of about a third of the promising American frigate FFG (X). Since the displacement of these frigates is known and estimated at 6000 tons, it can be said that future large unmanned surface ships will have a displacement of up to 2000 tons, which equates them to the class of modern corvettes.
At the Pentagon, the creation of a large number of unmanned ships of various classes and assignments is considered as one of the options for the development of the country's Navy. It is believed that these drones will be able to resolve the issue with a significant increase in the capabilities of the US Navy against the background of a gradual increase in the combat capabilities of the PRC fleets and Russia. In addition, the US defense department is confident that the construction of unmanned ships will reduce the cost of maintaining the fleet. It has already been said that the US Navy expects to receive unmanned ships of four different classes in the future. According to the American admirals, this will allow in practice to implement the concept of distributed marine operations (DMO - Distributed Maritime Operations). It is believed that the concept will help the United States to contain the growing influence of Beijing in the East China and South China seas by dispersing a large number of strike surface ships of the American fleet, including unmanned, in different parts of the world’s oceans, which will entail the dispersion of surveillance and intelligence from China and will provide the US Navy with the opportunity for offensive strikes.
UAV Sea Hunter ("Sea Hunter")
Successful projects to create surface unmanned ships in the United States already exist. In November last year, the US Pacific Fleet reported that a Sea Hunter surface hunter arrived at the Pearl Harbor fleet base. Representatives of the US Navy underlined the fact that the arrival of an unmanned ship at Pearl Harbor is living proof that such unmanned vessels on board are able to navigate thousands of miles in the open ocean and can be at sea for months. It was a surface drone "Sea Hunter" was the first ship of this class in the US Navy. It is known that previously the new development has already interacted with submarines, destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers of the American fleet. This happened as part of the Trident Warrior exercises in 2017 and 2018.
By its construction, the apparatus demonstrated is a classic trimaran, such a design allows to achieve higher seaworthiness and stability. The length of the Sea Hunter hull is 40 meters, the maximum speed of 27 knots (50 km / h). The ship is viewed by the US naval command as a kind of springboard to the future transition to unmanned surface displacement medium displacement ships (MUSV). The main purpose of the ship at this stage is anti-submarine operations. The cost of new items was estimated at 23 million dollars, which is significantly less than the cost of an ordinary warship with a trained crew. In the future, American strategists are going to place as many of these “pawns” as well as smaller marine UAVs on the sea chessboard.
Information sources:
https://www.defensenews.com
http://www.thedrive.com
https://nplus1.ru
https://regnum.ru
Information