US defence company General Atomics (GA) recently outlined its unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) programme, which centres on large underwater gliders intended to carry smaller UUVs, submarine-launched aerial drones and containerised payloads.
Rolf Ziesing, Vice President of Maritime Programmes at GA Electromagnetic Systems, said submerged tests have lasted up to 70 days and simulated missions anticipated for the vehicles.
Ziesing explained that a large host UUV will carry a payload consisting of another UUV also developed by the company and that had been operated at sea.
The company's ambitions extend to on-station endurance of several months to several years, and to missions currently performed by nuclear-powered attack submarines.
The existing 6.7-metre vehicle is being used for risk reduction, concept development, and deployment of smaller UUVs. General Atomics has classed this as a large displacement UUV (LDUUV), with endurance of weeks to months.
A planned extra-large UUV (XLUUV) measuring 30 to 41 metres with multi-year endurance. Ziesing described a variant with a 30-metre wingspan and cargo capacity equivalent in size to a CONEX box.
A programme graphic depicted host capacities of 16 to 96 smaller UUVs, depending on variant size. Those vehicles can in turn deploy aerial drones.
GA also showed a quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle emerging from a tube launched by a smaller UUV, along with video of a physical deployment test.
Ziesing said that the XLUUV can transport two LDUUVs.
The vehicles will use buoyancy-driven glider propulsion in place of propellers, supplemented by thrusters and purpose-designed control surfaces. GA said the blended-wing architecture increases internal payload volume and hydrodynamic efficiency.
Listed payloads include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, acoustic sensors, quantum sensors, mine deployment systems and strike packages.
Concept graphics showed launch points at Okinawa and Guam, with operating reach extending to First Island Chain chokepoints and China's littoral waters.
GA has linked the family to the US Navy's planned hedge force of autonomous systems and to reduced reliance on attack submarines.