DASA has invested £2.5million into autonomous submarines which will be developed for the Royal Navy under a new contract.
The contract for large autonomous submarines was awarded to MSubs Ltd as part of Royal Navy ambitions to improve anti-submarine measures. The First Sea Lord announced the contract at the Underwater Defence & Security Symposium in Southampton.
The First Sea Lord noted how the Ministry of Defence wants to increase its presence in the underwater battlespace and is exploring the use of extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XLUUV) for surveillance, reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare operations. Measuring about 30ft in length, this extra-large autonomous submarine is significantly larger than autonomous submarines used for beach reconnaissance, allowing it to operate at a range of 3000 nautical miles.
First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin said: “I am enormously excited about the potential for remotely piloted and autonomous systems to increase our reach and lethality, improve our efficiency and reduce the number of people we have to put in harm’s way.”
“These XLUUVs are at the forefront of underwater systems technology; UK technological developments such as this will be key to the Royal Navy maintaining its battle-winning edge in the underwater environment.”
XLUUV submarines are especially adept at covert intelligence gathering. They can leave their dock autonomously and secretly move to the operational area without any embarked crew for up to three months.
They are also able to sense hostile targets and report their findings back to the station, making them an important barrier for anti-submarine warfare. Currently, smaller autonomous and remotely piloted submarines are unable to undertake all the tasks of larger crewed submarines.
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