Military underwater drone docks with ships for energy-saving propulsion
Military underwater drone attaches itself to ships and submarines to reach its operational area in energy-saving manner. It charges its batteries in the process.
The Lamprey AUV docks with a ship (rendering).
(Image: Lockheed Martin)
US defense contractor Lockheed Martin has developed an autonomous underwater drone for military use that can attach itself to its ships and submarines, as well as those of allied military partners, for energy-saving propulsion in the oceans. The company announced on Monday. The Lamprey Multi-Mission Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) can thus cover longer distances without having to expend energy itself. At the same time, the underwater drone charges its internal batteries via miniturbines.
Lockheed Martin does not provide much information about the Lamprey AUV. For example, the size of the underwater drone, its weight, and its electric motor drive are unclear. The defense contractor only reveals that it is intended to have a payload volume of around 0.68 mÂł, which can be equipped with light anti-submarine torpedoes, electronic warfare jammers, acoustic decoys to imitate other ships, or electronic reconnaissance equipment, depending on the mission type. From three extendable double-tube launchers, Lamprey can deploy aerial drones after surfacing, which then carry out reconnaissance flights, for example.
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Lamprey's task is to remain on the seabed – even for a longer period – until the launch command for a military mission is given. Lamprey can cooperate with other underwater drones of the same type, which can be equipped differently. They then complement each other in the team to achieve a common mission objective, for example. By distributing reconnaissance and attack capabilities among several autonomous systems and the ability to remain on the seabed for extended periods waiting for deployment, reconnaissance and combat by the enemy are made more difficult.
Traveling Underwater Drone
However, the big problem with underwater drones is the high energy consumption of electric engines for propulsion to the target area and for maintaining the power supply of electrical systems such as computers, sensors, and subsystems. To still be able to cover longer distances underwater in an energy-saving manner, Lockheed Martin engineers have equipped the Lamprey AUV with a docking device. This allows the underwater drone to attach itself to ships and submarines of the U.S. Navy or those of allied nations and travel with them – similar to how remoras attach themselves to sharks and travel with them.
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The Lamprey underwater drone uses the opportunity to travel along to charge its batteries so that it is fully operational with charged energy storage in the target area. For this purpose, turbines are used that generate electricity from the water flow.
Lockheed Martin has self-financed the development of the Lamprey AUV, so it is not a Pentagon-controlled armament project.
(olb)
