USV warfare progressing rapidly

ARLINGTON, Va. - The development of unmanned watercraft for expeditionary warfare has been progressing rapidly, according to Capt. Pete Small, program manager of the Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems. “We made a tremendous amount of progress in the expeditionary warfare area in 2019,” he said Jan. 16 at the Surface Navy Association symposium. That progress included successful testing of three Mine Countermeasures USVs (MCM USV) on three different platforms. The Navy is using Textron’s Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle for the MCM USV program, one of the mission modules for Littoral Combat Ships. The long endurance, semi-autonomous, diesel-powered boat has been tested with Raytheon’s AQS-20 and Northrop Grumman’s AQS-24 mine-hunting sonars. “We have three vehicles operational in the water,” he said. In 2019, all three were operated with three different payloads - a suite payload and the two different towed sonars. Testing was done on the East, West and Gulf coasts, sometimes simultaneously. Additionally, PMS 406 conducted integration tests with the LCS and two different vessels - an expeditionary sea-base and a British amphibious platform. Developmental testing and operational assessment of MCM USV variant was completed in November. (Source: Seapower Magazine 01/20/20) The company established a second test facility in Panama City, Fla., in addition to the work already being done at the South Florida Test Facility. https://seapowermagazine.org/unmanned-watercraft-for-expeditionary-warfare-progressing-rapidly/