Drones take South China
Sea plunge By Carl O Schuster
HONOLULU - While unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), widely known as "drones", have grabbed
headlines and engaged heavily in America's
overseas wars, the technologies involved and their
military advantages have quietly inspired a
revolution in naval vessels, tactics and
operations. The innovations promise to add new
strategic dimensions to global maritime hot spots,
including simmering tensions in the South China
Sea.
Unmanned naval surface vessels were
used as a form of guided weaponry in World War II,
and the Cold War saw the advent of remotely
piloted surface and underwater vehicles for the
hunting and sweeping of naval mines. Those early
"naval drones" were controlled by guidance signals
sent over a wire that trailed from
the back of the vehicle
or, in the case of West Germany's "Troika"
minesweeping system, via radio signals from a
mother ship.
Technological advances have
spurred the introduction of a growing range of
unmanned underwater and surface vessels - UUVs and
USVs, respectively. Autonomous variants, or AUVs
and ASVs, are now also under development. Most
have a reconnaissance mission but attack variants
have already entered service and enhanced models
are reportedly on the drawing board.
Like
their aerial counterparts, unmanned naval vessels
are intended to extend a commanders' view of the
battle space and expand the fleet's area of
control without increasing the number of ships,
submarines and crewmen. They are smaller, more
maneuverable and much harder to detect than manned
systems. They typically are also cheaper to build
and operate, a key factor as US defense spending
faces significant future belt-tightening.
AUVs and UUVs also share their aerial
brethren's reduced political sensitivity in their
operations, witnessed in the mostly muted response
to remote-controlled assassinations of terror
suspects in theaters such as Afghanistan and
remote areas of neighboring Pakistan. That may
change, however, after the first USV is captured
or recovered in a foreign harbor or contested
maritime areas such as the South China Sea.
As was the case of UAVs, Israel has
pioneered the use of modern unmanned naval
vessels. Their so-called Protector USVs have been
in service since 2009, used primarily to patrol
off Lebanon's coast and monitor Hezbollah's
activities and movements.
The Protector's
small size - nine meters
in length, 4,000 kilograms displacement and light
composite material construction - make it
especially difficult to detect and track. Its 50-knot maximum speed and high
maneuverability, meanwhile, complicate any
enemies' efforts to engage it.
Although
light, its stabilized small-caliber automatic
weapons system is accurate and sufficient to
engage light craft utilized by terrorist groups
trying to infiltrate or attack the Israeli coast.
The latest model to enter production has a
high-pressure hose system for non-lethal
engagements against blockade runners trying to
reach the Gaza Strip. It also has a second engine
for propulsion, providing redundancy and increased
reliability.
The US has followed Israel's
example with a range of USVs now in testing. The
first prototype was the Spartan Scout, a crewless
rigid-hulled inflatable boat tested from 2001
through 2006. Weighing under two tonnes and
carrying a .50 caliber machine gun, the Spartan
Scout carried a range of electro-optical and
infrared sensors as well as a small surface search
radar.
Intended for operations from a
standard surface ship, it was initially viewed as
a means of extending a ship's presence and reach
in surface surveillance and control missions. It
was also viewed as a "proof-of-concept" vehicle to
determine the future practicality and utility of
USV operations.
The Spartan Scout's
successful demonstration led to the Fleet-class
USV designed for employment from America's
Freedom- and Independence-class littoral combat
ships. These unmanned units, classified as ships
by the US Navy, are intended to extend littoral
combat ships' presence, surveillance area and
range of missions. Significantly, these USVs can
be employed in mine, electronic and anti-submarine
warfare as well as anti-piracy operations.
At 12 meters in length and displacing 7.7
tonnes, the Fleet-class USVs are larger than
Israel's Protector and have a top speed of 35
knots and can carry up to 2,300 kilograms of
equipment, either sensors, weapons or a
combination of both. They are designed for up to
48 hours of autonomous operations and can be
converted into a manned platform in under 24
hours. First delivered in 2008, the four units
currently in fleet inventory are undergoing
operation testing and expected to achieve initial
operational capability by 2015.
Armed
and dangerous Three other USVs are under
development in the US. The 16.5 meter Piranha USV
concept, built almost entirely of the latest
carbon-nanotube composite material and displacing
just 3,600 kilograms, began testing in 2010. The
naval drone can reportedly carry a payload
exceeding 6,800 kilograms out to a range of over
2,170 nautical miles. It is being considered for a
range of missions by the US Navy and Coast Guard,
including harbor and coastal patrol, search and
rescue, anti-piracy operations and anti-submarine
warfare.
The US Navy is also testing
autonomous and unmanned underwater vehicles (AUVs
and UUVs). Autonomous underwater vehicles operate
entirely along pre-programmed parameters, while
UUVs include the capacity for control by a human
operator and may be programmed to respond to
changing circumstances that fall outside
pre-mission expectations.
Commercial
versions, used mainly for underwater surveys,
marine biology research and maritime mapping, were
first introduced in the 1990s. Modifying them for
military applications and operations, however,
required extensive development and testing
programs of the technology needed for reliable
control and recovery.
UUVs primary mission
has focused on extending the surveillance
capability and reach of the navy's submarine
fleet. Early UUVs were designed specifically for
launch from submarine torpedo tubes, with the
first such mission launched in 2007. Although the
launch was successful with the UUV returning to
the mother sub, recovery proved complex.
That motivated the development of a
Universal Launch and Recovery Module that enables
a submarine to launch and recover larger, more
capable UUVs. The module incorporates a powerful
robotic arm that is used to recover the UUV and
bring it aboard. Four Ohio-class former ballistic
missile submarines have reportedly been modified
into UUV carriers and the latest Virginia-class
units will also be UUV, as well as UAV, capable.
Although fully capable autonomous AUVs and
UUVs are not yet operational, the US Navy's 2004
Master Plan calls for a range of such units to be
in service by 2015. Equipped with active sonar,
and perhaps even non-acoustic sensors, they and
their surface counterparts will be able to range
far from their mother ships. They will specialize
in conducting covert reconnaissance and
surveillance of harbors, coastal and deep ocean
waters, as well as searching for mines and
submarines, without risking their mother ship's
location.
It isn't clear yet how AUVs and
UUVs will report what they find back to the mother
ship, but the advent of blue-light laser
communications systems will likely feed into a
complex buoy-to-satellite-to-submarine system.
While the command and control aspects of such
operations have proven to be the greatest
challenge in development, latest indications are
that these technological hurdles are surmountable.
With naval drones promising to expand the
capabilities of manned naval platforms and reduce
both long-term and short-term personnel and
operating costs, a growing range of nations
apparently view these systems as an attractive
option for meeting their maritime security needs.
Britain, Canada, France and India, to name
but a few, have all stated their interest in naval
drones; it would not be surprising to learn that
other countries, including China and Russia, are
studying, if not pursuing, development of their
own unmanned naval systems.
Unmanned
aerial and naval vehicles promise to revolutionize
naval operations and warfare over the next decade.
Their reliance on digital networks, computers,
computer systems, and data links suggest that any
fleet hoping to rely on unmanned systems must also
dedicate a resources to dominating the
electromagnetic and cyber spheres. In today's and
tomorrow's strategic theaters, success in the
physical world of maritime operations may well be
determined by victory in virtual dimensions.
Carl O Schuster is a retired
United States Navy Captain based in Honolulu,
Hawaii. The views expressed here are his own.
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