New Navy Submarine Drone System Expands Stealth Without New Hulls
America’s attack submarines are developing into a new kind of underwater ‘reach.’ No longer is it a question of how many torpedoes we have. It’s a question of how many robot scouts we have which we can also recover using the same torpedoes. The importance of this is that the only real advantage we’ve ever had by using a submarine is the fact that it’s stealthy. A submarine which has the capability to launch autonomous vehicles for sensing, mine detection, and seabed operations without ever surfacing the submarine itself has more than a tactical advantage. It has a tactical advantage multiplied by a factor of the stealthiness of the submarine itself. It has effectively extended the capability of the surroundings, yet still retained one very significant attribute which makes the submarine operationally valuable in the first place.
The Torpedo Tube Launch and Recovery system, or TTLR, has been selected by L3Harris to provide to the US Navy. It’s a system which will allow L3Harris’ own Iver4 900 autonomous underwater vehicles to be launched via a standard US Navy torpedo tube, as well as being recovered. It’s a system which has already been validated by the US and its allies for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, mine detection, as well as seabed operations. It’s a combination which is both unique and very interesting. While the ability to launch the AUV is certainly a tactical advantage, the ability to recover it is what gives it the operational advantage.
“The Torpedo Tube Launch and Recovery system is not a future capability, it’s answering combatant commander needs today,” said Nino DiCosmo, President, Maritime, Space & Mission Systems, L3Harris. He added, “Our system is the first to successfully launch and recover AUVs from a submarine, providing commanders flexibility for persistent undersea operations and maintaining essential stealth.”The last part of that statement, persistent undersea operations, is where that technology is really more than just a simple upgrade.
The Navy has been working towards a doctrine of manned/unmanned teaming, where the manned vessels would be the command center, and the unmanned vessels would be the sensors, decoys, etc., for the manned vessel. This is where the TTLR would fit in well with the Navy’s doctrine. It would not require the Navy to go with the most expensive option in new technology: that is, purchasing a new submarine. It would be able to be utilized on any submarine in the world, ours or any of our allies. It has also been made so that it would be hot swappable, so it would be able to be utilized even after it has been drained. This is where the technology would be able to be utilized so that the vessel would be able to cover more ground and check out the object of interest and then continue on without worrying about the cost of the unmanned vessels that it is carrying.
The Iver4 900 is not an extra-large type of robot submarine. This is because this vessel is relatively small in size, with a length of only 2.5 meters. This is because this vessel was intended to be used in relatively focused operations. This is a stark contrast to the other unmanned underwater vessels available in the market. One of the other unmanned underwater vessels available in the market is the extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle offered by Boeing. This vessel can be utilized over a range of 6,500 miles. This part of the Navy’s unmanned underwater vessel section is bifurcating between the unmanned vessels that are utilized as underwater submarines and the unmanned vessels that are utilized as extensions of crewed vessels.
The immediate implications are easy to understand. A submarine that can launch and recover unmanned vehicles silently from its torpedo rooms gives it a greater search radius, improves its accessibility to the seabed, and gives it more possibilities in contested areas without compromising its stealth advantage. In the world of submarine warfare, that is not a secondary capability. That is a doctrine change in a box.
