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Executive Overview: Jane’s Underwater Technology
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| 19 January 2006 |
By Cliff Funnell, Editor of Jane’s Underwater Technology
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles/Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (AUV/UUVs)
The initial driver for AUV/UUV development was in relation to potential military requirements, primarily in the US, although of course the French EPAULARD vehicle, launched in 1983 and developed for deep ocean (6,000 m) photography, was a pioneer in its application in ocean science. During the late 1980s and early 1990s the US military started to reduce expenditure on UUV/AUV programmes, although funding has been significantly increased as the US Navy (USN) has identified their benefits in a number of operations, and the US defence budget is responsible for the vast proportion of expenditure on AUV/UUV programmes.
AUVs in the Underwater Defence Sector
The role of the UUV in the 21st century is to be used in small-scale, short regional conflicts in a close littoral environment. The enemy may no longer be a single nation but a small organisation of wealthy yet 'chaos'-minded fundamentalists, who will be very difficult to observe. The use of Special Forces in this theatre of operations is essential, and their use can be greatly aided by specialist UUVs. Alternately, the threat to the Sea Lanes Of Communication (SLOC) of nations, especially those which transport oil, for example the Strait of Hormuz, regarding terrorism is mainly mine based. This is quite simply because mines are cheap, plentiful, easy to obtain, effective, and very easy to lay, well within the means of terrorists. It is for this reason that UUVs are coming to the forefront of mine-countermeasures practices, and why they will continue to be a major presence in the littoral battlespace.
One of the latest requirements in littoral waters is Rapid Environment Assessment (REA), providing deployed forces and/or vessels with appropriate environmental and oceanographic information of the waters and seabed, such as currents, bathymetry, sound velocity, seabed materials, water visibility and so on. To carry out satisfactory REA, the mine warfare community and oceanographic researchers are carrying out extensive studies into the use of AUVs in this role. This includes both free-swimming and crawling vehicles operating in the surf zone.
The USN has been re-evaluating the operational concept for its submarines and identifying important new missions, particularly in terms of intelligence gathering and land attack. It has been observed that the submarine is a "covert and persistent" Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform, capable of loitering for long periods close to an enemy. Under the so-called Multi-Mission Project (MMP), the US submarine Jimmy Carter has been dramatically modified as an ISR and Special Operations platform, the most expensive intelligence-gathering vehicle ever built. Between the outer hull and the pressure hull is a large volume of space that is open to sea pressure. This area will be used to store UUVs and other Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), together with their interface equipment - for example, communications and control cable reels. A possible mission for an SSGN would be to support and launch UUVs to neutralise mines covertly.
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