Posted on 06/29/2016 9:14:07 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Elbit Systems’ 12-meter experimental Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), dubbed Seagull, has been busy testing new capabilities and control concepts in recent months. The idea is that a small swarm of these craft—well, just two right now—can be controlled from a single workstation, deployed either ashore or on a ship. From there, tasks such as harbor patrol and force protection, mine detection, search and rescue and even anti-submarine warfare can be conducted with maximum efficiency.
The Seagull’s semi-autonomous control concept, long endurance (up to 96 hours of runtime), advanced sensor suite, and ease of adaptation could allow it to be a major force multiplier for navies in the not-so-distant future. The anti-submarine warfare mission is especially interesting as deploying a small swarm of these boats and ranging them over the horizon from their mothership or homeport could provide an inexpensive and thorough anti-submarine screen.
Historically, the problem with using a 12-meter boat for this mission is that even if it detects a submarine, another weapons platform has to prosecute that target. This could be an anti-submarine warfare helicopter or a maritime patrol aircraft, or even the mothership, by way of a rocket assisted torpedo. Still, this complicated “kill chain” takes time to assemble and weapons from other platforms take time to arrive on target. This is an especially critical issue when it comes to the cat-and-mouse game of submarine hunting.
Elbit seems to be looking at shortening that kill chain dramatically while still leveraging small boat efficiency. How? By installing a torpedo tube on the Seagull itself,
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
Drones are very effective in guerrilla warfare.
this looks Very useful.....(and sleek)
good for Israel!
This makes me think of the PT boats from WW2.
Agree ..... such a modern version, unmanned used as pickets, in-depth defense would be hell to counter IMO. But it seems then an enemy would start to target the simple cogs in the wheel. The satellites that link such and or human controllers.
The satellite issue is a biggie. There’s no doubt that our biggest opponents can erase our constellation of sats, de can do as well. How will everyone’s fancy military hardware function within info blackout?
Should say “which we can do as well.”
You then stick a driver in that vessel. No problem.
Smart countries will have back up operators, stupid countries will try to stick camel jockeys in there.
Still no problem.
I was wondering the same good. High tech is not much good when demographic warfare is so low tech.
Triad of comms ... sat, high and sub low freqs. Damn, thats a sweet drone. Be great for fishing too.
I see a human operator yet this vessel is called a “drone”.
Is the operator backup to remote guidance, or vice versa?
Anyway, neat looking craft.
yep..... killer whale !
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