Deep down: navy to explore new ways to employ underwater robots.

• Author: Rusling, Matthew
• Position: Underwater Warfare

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Underwater robots have become essential tools in non-military missions such as the exploration of the oceans and offshore oil drilling. The U.S. Navy wants to capitalize on the available technology and deploy robotic vehicles--not just tele-operated ones but also more advanced systems that can execute missions autonomously.

The goal is to deploy unmanned vehicles that can find buried mines, pinpoint enemy submarines and help to protect coastal areas from terrorist attacks.

The Navy has designed and tested a number of underwater unmanned vehicles, or UUVs, but it has yet to begin producing them in large quantities. Officials in charge of UUV development programs say the service wants to continue to evaluate technologies and test prototypes until they can determine what systems best meet the needs of the fleet.

For the Navy, these vehicles represent a chance to free up sailors from "dull, dirty and dangerous" tasks that could be performed by UUVs, said Capt. Paul Siegrist, program manager for unmanned maritime vehicle systems at Naval Sea Systems Command.

Siegrist has asked experts from the National Defense Industrial Association's undersea warfare vehicles group to assess technologies for future UUVs. They will identify advances in autonomy, materials, control, sensors, communications, launch and recovery and payloads, he said.

Until these studies are completed and the Navy has an opportunity to test systems at sea, it remains unclear how large a role the vehicles will play, Siegrist said.

UUVs' shapes resemble small torpedoes and come in various sizes. The smallest weigh 25 to 100 pounds. Others range from 500 to 3,000 pounds. The largest can reach 20,000 pounds.

The Navy has begun employing UUVs in applications for shallow water mine warfare, oceanography and special warfare support. Vehicles are being tested aboard minehunting ships through a process known as "user operational evaluation system," said Siegrist. A team of mine warfare specialists was equipped with two 7.5-inch diameter vehicles and a single 12.75-inch diameter vehicle, each outfitted with side scan sonars. These systems are man-portable or deployed from piers and small craft.

A future evaluation will include several UUVs that will carry more advanced sensors, such as synthetic aperture sonars. One of the goals is to develop a "surface mine countermeasure" UUV that would be operated from the Littoral Combat Ship or from piers.

The Navy also has been...