Tuesday, April 14, 2020

The U.S. Navy Wants Unmanned Underwater Vehicles That Can Scatter Anti-Submarine Mines

An unmanned underwater vessel (UUV) astern of the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf

Braking Defense: PRC, Russian Subs May Soon Face UUV-Launched US Sea Mines

Head of the Unmanned and Small Combatants office, Rear Adm. Casey Moton, said the industry day was meant to, “stress the importance of the program to the fleet – they want it today, they need it today.”

WASHINGTON: Unmanned underwater vehicles will scatter anti-submarine mines as a new way to protect US Navy ships at sea, part of a larger push to screen the fleet from increasingly sophisticated Chinese and Russian subs prowling the seas.

This marks an important shift in US naval warfare, as the head of the Navy’s mine warfare division, Capt. Chris Merwin, outlined at a conference last year. “Basically we have Quickstrike mines, air-delivered dumb bombs, and we have a few submarine-launchable mines. That is what we have now,” but “that is changing big time.”

The future “of mining,” Merwin said, will be [unmanned underwater vehicle] clandestinely-launched mines.”

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WNU Editor: The U.S. Navy has been behind in the development of unmanned systems when compared to the US Air Force. But it looks like they are trying to catch up.

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