Fighting ship of the future UXV
The sleek design, unmanned aerial systems and the next generation of weapons will make the ships of the future the most impressive of all that ever existed.
It's hard to say what types of wars the future will bring, but one thing is clear: Robots will participate in most battles. In fact, they are already participating. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flew 258502 hours last year, up from 27201 in 2002. U.S. military spending on unmanned aerial systems is expected to reach $3,76 billion by 2010. The war of robots, which for a long time remained the lot of science fiction writers, has now become a reality.
That is why, at the end of last year, the British defense company BAE Systems announced plans to build a high-speed, specially designed naval home for such combat robots. This ship represents the concept of the UXV Combatant: partly - the ship, partly - the carrier of unmanned aircraft.
From the point of view of shipbuilding, the best quality here is that unmanned aircraft can take off from such a small space where a man-operated aircraft simply could not.
"This is violence - launching an aircraft from a carrier - the shock to the human body will be very great," said Charles Thompson of BAE Systems. Remove the person from the vehicle, and the aircraft can be launched from a smaller site, which will save usable space and allow the UXV to act both as a fast, strong ship and as an aircraft carrier at the same time. On the UXV, two 164-foot decks, connected in the shape of a V, will be able to shoot unmanned aircraft into the air using electromagnetic catapults and ramps. Locators, infrared sensors and radio frequency identifiers (RFID) organize the control, take-off and landing of the aircraft.
The UXV may look radically new, but in fact it adopted the design of the already built ship: the project of the BAE destroyer company “45 Daring” - a massive warship whose architecture uses stealth technology: it will become part of the British fleet in 2009. Like the Project 45 destroyer, the UXV will be about 500 feet (150 meters) long and equipped with a diesel power plant and an electric turbine. The maximum speed of the project "45" will exceed 27 knots, UXV will develop the same speed.
But, unlike its predecessor, the UXV can be effectively serviced by a minimum crew. The warships have crews of hundreds of men, the UXV will be managed by a team of all 60 sailors, which is enough to organize a three-shift watch and, additionally, to service unmanned aircraft.
It takes years to build ships, and to meet the requirements of the future 2020 of the year, when the first ships of the project are expected to appear, the UXV must be multipurpose. That is why BAE engineers, working together with American General Dynamics on various projects, are developing the concept of so-called “modular target bays”, changing the set of which will allow the commander to quickly change the ship’s main purpose. The UXV can be an anti-submarine ship, a minesweeper, and a platform for supplying ground units, and a take-off deck for unmanned aircraft.
Outside of combat, various unmanned aircraft can be based on other ships or on a ground base. When the UXV is assigned, the aircraft are delivered aboard. For antisubmarine activity, the ship can be equipped with unmanned underwater vehicles, high-tech sonar systems, torpedoes, or even a helicopter similar to the anti-submarine Super Lynx. In the version of the minesweeper, he will be able to carry unmanned aerial vehicles capable of destroying detected dangerous objects. To support ground troops in combat, he is ready to carry airborne assault vehicles, fire support helicopters and other armored vehicles.
The UXV will also have enough self defense equipment. Launchers for ship-to-air missiles, ship-to-ship missiles and guided missiles will be located on the tank. A gun for shooting 6-inch fire-rate projectiles over 20 rounds per minute will be a powerful means of conducting anti-ship warfare and defeat coastal targets. And a medium-caliber 155-tee millimeter cannon will respond to enemy fire when the assault forces rush to the coast.
When plans for building a UXV hit the Internet, some commentators were quick to call it a robot ship. But it is not. Even with today's unmanned aerial vehicles, most UXV mechanisms will be under human control. Therefore, a small team and several aircraft pilots will be at risk of losing lives, in almost any military scenario.
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