In early March this year, the First Sea Lord revealed that the RN will receive its first large unmanned submarine. Here we look at the background to this project and how the platform will be used to test technologies and develop doctrine.
Defence accelerator
In April 2019 the MoD published a competition notice seeking proposals to develop an autonomous version of an existing extra large unmanned underwater vehicle (XLUUV) to be procured under its Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) programme. The contract was placed with Plymouth-based Marlin Submarines Ltd. (MSubs) in September 2019 although not publicised until this year.
The XLUUV is a two-stage project totalling just £2.4 Million. Phase 1, worth £1M, is for the delivery of the vehicle that can complete basic seaworthiness and autonomy tests. Phase 2, worth £1.4M, covers renting the vehicle from the contractor for two years and conducting more complex mission testing. The idea behind such “accelerator” projects is to trial concepts quickly in a “fast to fail” process of elimination. By making small investments in potentially risky but innovative projects the MoD hopes to get successful new technology to the front-line faster. However, there is high confidence that this XLUUV will be just the first iteration of a successful concept that offers a partial solution to both ASW challenges and the RN’s lack of SSNs.
The DASA specification called for the contractor to base their proposal on and exiting platform in order would reduce costs and speed up delivery. The submersible would need to carry, deliver and recover test payloads of and least 2 cubic meters and 2 metric tonnes, have intelligence-gathering and ASW barrier capability.
MSubs are a British design and manufacturing success story and have designed a range of small manned and unmanned submersibles for military and commercial purposes. In 2011 they built a Mobile Anti-Submarine Training Target (MASTT) for the US Navy. This low-cost UUV for Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) training remains in service today. MSubs also developed the Mobile Under Sea Test Laboratory (MUST), a 12-metre UUV that was used in an ASW exercise by the RN in 2012 and have supplied Dry Combat Submersibles (special forces delivery vehicles) to the US Navy. Harnessing this specialist UK expertise to the benefit of the RN is long overdue and this is the largest contract awarded by DASA to date.
MSubs’ experienced workforce at their Estover, Plymouth factory has built a succession of small submersibles over more than 10 years and has been able to complete the DASA project quickly. Like all existing plans, the COVID-19 pandemic may impact the trials timetable but MSubs say their software designers continue to work at home and a small team is currently working to complete the vessel. It has been possible to practice social distancing and there is only space for one person to work inside the submarine at a time regardless. The vessel has already been moved from the factory to Thales’ UK Maritime Autonomy Centre at Turnchapel Wharf in Plymouth from where the trials will be conducted. The original launch date was set for mid-April with the Phase 1 testing completed by the end of September and it may still be possible to keep to this schedule. As a prototype, it will not be painted black like an operational UUV, but instead will be white which can aid recovery from the seabed in the event it should become lost.
XLUUVs have many potential future roles but for the RN their first employment is likely to be ASW training particularly for simulating small conventional or AIP submarines in littoral waters. It could also conduct trials to de-risk aspects of future submarines – the SSN(R) or Dreadnought designs.
Manta
When the RN officially announced the DASA project it caused confusion by stating it would be 30-metres long. A vehicle of this size is an aspiration for the future but Manta will be considerably smaller, based on the existing 9-metre S201 manned submarine. The S201 has been retrofitted with an autonomous control system to allow unmanned operation and the outer hull modified. The craft is fuel cell powered and can be operated for about a week without charging. The original intention was for 3-month endurance and a range of about 3,000 nautical miles. MSubs say that Manta could probably achieve this but only by filling the payload bay with additional fuel cells. As a testbed that will only be deployed on trials over for short distances at first, the endurance requirement is not critical.
The exact payload that the vehicle will carry has yet to be decided but will likely include passive sonar, EO cameras, electronic warfare (EW) and communications electronic support measures (CESM) equipment. The Manta project and the future UUVs that will follow should help to stimulate industry to take more interest in developing compact, low power sensors for the RN since existing frigates and SSNs have relatively generous space and power supplies available. The smaller European conventionally-powered submarines have to be more careful with power consumption and so there is some international experience of these design constraints. The market for miniaturised sonar arrays to be carried by unmanned systems looks set to expand rapidly in future. The advent of UUVs is also seeing a revival of research into non-acoustic detection methods that were mostly abandoned at the end of the Cold war. The RN has already experimented with this technology on its SSNs that may include wake detection systems. These sensors tend to be small, modular and have much lower power requirement than sonars, being well suited to equipping UUVs.
A major consideration for the project has been compatibility with Type 26 and Type 31 frigate mission bays. Given the range constraints of even XLUUVs, in future, they are likely to be carried into theatre onboard warships for launching at sea. UUVs have the potential to hugely extend the ASW and ISR reach of just a single ship. The Type 26 has a 15 x 20m mission bay and sophisticated mechanised Handling System (MBHS) that can lower a payload of up to 15 tonnes into the water. At least to begin with, the Type 31 will have virtually no ASW capability but this could be mitigated by embarking UUVs. Launching and recovering them via a hatch from the mission bay below the flight deck promises to be more challenging.
The ‘bare-bones’ Manta makes an interesting contrast with the ‘Gucci’ 45-tonne, $50M Boeing Orca XLUUVs being purchased by the US Navy. Boeing are a world leader in the development of large UUVs, having already gained experience with their Echo Voyager. The Orca will build on the Voyager design but lengthened to 25m with an 8-tonne payload bay, making it too large to deploy from a frigate or destroyer.
Uncharted waters
As this is such a novel vessel, new operating procedures and a concept of operations must be developed almost from scratch. Besides assessing the platform’s performance, this project will help the RN to define how operational XLUUVs will eventually be launched and recovered, navigated and deployed. There are also more complex future challenges around water space management, deconfliction and IFF as well as considering the moral and ethical frameworks for using ‘robot submarines’. Communicating with UUVs, especially in real-time remains one of the biggest challenges as the transmission of high bandwidth data through water is difficult or only possible at very short range. Like all submarines, the UUV will increase its chance of being detected when if it must rise to the surface to communicate via satellite or radio periodically.
DASA provides the funds and financial oversight but personnel from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), the RN and MSubs will work together to run trials in the South Coast Exercise Areas (SCXA).
Stage 1 trials with test Manta’s ability to diving and maintain a set depth, following waypoints and its navigation accuracy. It must demonstrate situational awareness and the ability to detect and avoid obstacles. It must also deploy a small 250kg payload such as a mini UUV or a mine (although payload recovery is not part of the specification). Stage 2 will test its communications abilities and how it may be tasked, re-tasked or abort its mission remotely. Trials with various sensor payloads and power cells will also be conducted and its radiated acoustic signature measures across its operating envelope.
Manta offers a very inexpensive technology demonstrator and pathway for the RN to have operational UUVs within 5-10 years. Its shortage of manned submarines and the increasingly contested underwater battlespace means much is at stake for the RN with this relatively low-profile project.
So it wasn’t the larger Moray then, Supose the RN have to start somewhere and bigger isn’t always better in that area.
Is it credible to call the under flight deck space in a Type 31, a mission bay? I think Babcock’s just describes the space as somewhere containers may be transported which is not the same thing.
As the USV is 9m length, could it be deployed from one of the Type 31 boat bays?
Yes no doubt
I am curious what capability this actually brings.
It can’t really be used for sub hunting as it wouldn’t have a payload to do anything about it, and by the time it has surfaced to send the details to the mothership and the mothership has responded, the target would have moved and it would be too late.
The only thing i can see it being useful for is sitting off a coast, and listening to radio chatter.
It doesn’t feel ike a game changer, but i assume i am missing something.
What makes a submarine work is its crew. You can talk to a UAV easily, you can’t talk a USV easily.
I like how facts are down voted on this site.
Shocker look who is winging about the voting system again.
Steve, thisnis just a test bed to establish what we can actually do with them operationally. Once we have matured the technologies we will develop towards something like the moray which could house a few torpedoes for war time. However, I see these being primarily used to patrol our waters and act as a trip wire, and to sent from a mothership into hostile waters to gather Intel. It will probably be some time before we launch weapons from them in anger but we have started the first step of the journey. Once weaponized and they become faster and have greater duration, I would also expect to see them hunting in packs or our SSNs and CASD deploying with several of these alongside protecting them on critical missions. Critical transit routes will be able to be closed off in war time with a number of these just sat at the bottom of the ocean waiting and watching ready to fire if required. Many many uses and a really exciting potential once fully matured in my opinion. Their use will be limited for the first few years but expect them to be vital in years to come and we must get ahead of the curve.
TS – it’s almost like you work for MSubs! This is very much an R&D model – repurposing a previously manned platform to explore the art of the possible both in terms of sensor fit and useful autonomy. Finding the balance between cheap, reliable and expendable on one side, and complex and expensive on the other is but one issue we are wrestling with. We don’t even need to worry too much about weaponizing these systems just yet. Notwithstanding the ethics, dealing with the physics of ballasting a small boat after releasing any payload is a challenge and very quickly ratchets up cost and complexity. Finding the hostile submarine is the challenging aspect of ASW; the subsequent weapon release is relatively straightforward and given the complexities of Water Space Management is best left in human hands for now. With increase in battery and fuel cell technology and the daily advances in autonomy, putting a capable XL UUV to sea to conduct what the US refers to as seabed warfare (ISR, ASW MCM and protection of subsurface Critical National Infrastructure (CNI))
Legally speaking you must have a man in the loop when using robotic weapon systems, i.e. drones etc. Not sure how mines get round this though?
Communications through the water is still a major hurdle. You can use acoustic communications, but this announces you presence to anyone listening. It also has a limited bandwidth, so data transfer is constricted. Granted radio waves can pass through water, but tend to be very long wavelengths. Because of these long wavelengths, the bandwidth is very low, thus making the transfer of data incredibly slow.
There have been recent developments with lasers. In the ocean, laser beams are hampered by significant absorption and scattering, which restrict both the distance the beam can travel and the data signalling rate. To address these problems, NASA and a number of other universities/organisations are developing narrow-beam optical communications that use a beam from one underwater vehicle pointed precisely at the receive terminal of a second underwater vehicle. The obvious problem is that both sea vehicles will be moving and require to know where the other is at any given time. So far it has been demonstrated that lasers operating in the ultra violet to blue part (450nm seems to be a favourite) of the light spectrum can transmit underwater, but not at massive distances. So far the lab distances are relatively small, as in 12 to 50m for example. They have said it can be scaled up to transmit with clarity to around 1.5km. But to extend the range more is a massive challenge. One of the key issues is the turbidity of the water, i.e. how clear it is. Depending on how clear the water is will determine the required laser frequency. MIT have shown that they can tune a laser on the fly to compensate for turbidity.
Underwater lasers have shown data handling of around 30Gb/s, which should be enough for near real time analysing. The point to point method could also be used for a identification friend or foe system. As the lasers sweep over each vehicle, searching for the receiver to latch on to, i.e. no receiver = not a friend. The technology is now there, it just needs developing further to a production standard. If the range can be extended this will be when the UUV becomes a game changer. Otherwise if its operating at a distance from the mothership for example, it will have to rely on releasing a cable operated buoy to the surface and doing quick burst data transmissions at predetermined times or if it finds a target of interest.
I guess you could have a small relay that is on the surface that pickes up the laser signal and passes it to a sat or mothership that is further than the few hundred meters that the laser can travel and still give the UAV a bit of space should the relay get discovered.
Yes, that’s possibly doable, but how does the relay follow the UUV? Underwater warfare is not my field, so I’m not sure how noisy having a cable and buoy permanently deployed would be? However, data could then be relayed via satellite using a Link-16 style data-link, but that would necessitate an omni-directional antenna, which can then be detected by anyone nearby, which isn’t great for stealth.
The trial of the UUV will need to solve a lot of problems to make the concept not only doable but also practical for operations. Communications between the UUV and its controller not withstanding, making sure it doesn’t stray into a drift net, or hit another vessel are some of the other problems they will need to resolve before it can be used for its intended role. It will be a very interesting trial and hopefully it will develop the practical use of UUVs, as we definitely need them.
I would suggest the relay does not follow. It self destructs after a period on no communications & a new one launched. This would require it to be cheap & cheerful. But it it’s purely a relay, it may be possible.
I wonder how much gear like goggles, masks, gloves and aprons the NHS to save lives could have bought for the cost of this underwater tech demonstrator?
What’s more important, the lives of our citizens or taking cold war style confrontations into the deep sea?
This country needs a fundamental shift in priorities instead of trying to keep up with the Jones. We are not an America or China and full spectrum participation, never mind dominance is clearly beyond us in every the military field eg. deep underwater.
The coronavirus pandemic won’t be around forever, but once it is under control, there will still be the threat of Russian submarines to deal with. The Russians appear to be investing heavily in new submarines, which means we need to have a credible ASW capability, especially as we are an island nation where most goods from other countries arrive by ship.
Iqbal just loves to argue that the MoD shouldn’t exist, and if he can’t have that have it reduced as much as possible. Anything that weakens the UK is good in his book (no prizes for working out who he works for).
And who do I work for Dern? Don’t be coy now.
This crisis has been an eye opener for how resources have been misallocated for decades in this country. After thousands dead, poor planning and fracas over provision of personal protection equipment to NHS staff, that has lead to dead Doctors and nurses, we can never go back to how it was before. We need rational ways to distribute resources. Nobody is calling for scrapping our forces.
As for the so called Russian ‘threat’, the people of this country don’t believe it. Hence, the reason no political party has been willing to substantially increase defence expenditure. And nurses with the effects of Covid-19 on our people, society and economic dislocation , it’s likely that the defence budget will have to stretch to cover our response, just as it covers pension payments, Trident etc now. That’s just common sense. All govt departments need to adapt to dealing with Covid-19.
If the Russians couldn’t invade the UK when they were the big bad USSR, they won’t now that they are a shadow of their former power, with a declining economy and gangsters in charge.
The Russian navy can have as many hulls as you like to count but their ability to maintain, upgrade and repair equipment and train personnel is suspect at best. Their sole carrier, for example, has to be escorted by a repair ship at all times because it breaks down every few hundred miles! Conscripts forced to serve will seldom be well trained or wish to die for the motherland! Most want to emigrate to the West! Lol
Yawn, oh what Iqbal protesting his innocence? Maybe when you have something to say that’s not overtly anti-uk and anti-navy I’ll listen to what you say.
Told you the stooge was wants the MOD gone.
The original announcement about the much larger autonomous submarine cant have been a mis-statement by the First Sea Lord,
“Plymouth-based MSubs Ltd are to provide the senior service with a 30-metre underwater vehicle, which has a range of up to 3,000 nautical miles.”
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2020/march/05/200305-1sl-conference-underwater-warfare
30m is about twice the length of the WW2 S class ( 202ft 640 tons surfaced)
https://msubs.com/unmanned-submersibles/moray/
Looking at their site, the Moray seems to be very slow?