French boatbuilder Zodiac Milpro has unveiled a new 9.3-metre unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that can be employed in various missions.
The aluminium vessel weighs 5.5 tonnes. Zodiac Milpro said it can exceed 40 knots and travel more than 600 nautical miles, subject to operating conditions.
The USV’s maximum interchangeable payload is 800 kg.
Its missions include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, force protection, mine countermeasures (MCM), and hydrography. Other roles depend on how the vessel is configured and equipped.
The USV has a configurable mission bay that can take radar, electro-optical/infrared sensors, sonar, towed arrays, or electronic warfare systems. A central moonpool will be available for deploying underwater systems, including hydrographic and MCM sensors.
Stern deployment arrangements can handle sonar buoys, towed arrays, unmanned underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicles, and additional MCM systems.
The vessel can be launched and recovered by automatic davit and is compatible with existing cradles and davits. It has single-point and four-point lifting, is road transportable, and can fit in a 40-foot ISO container.
Zodiac Milpro has also described it as air-droppable.
Through a ground control station, operators can control the vessel remotely, programme waypoints, monitor onboard systems and manage video feeds. Commands and sensor data can be passed by satellite, 4G/5G, wifi or VHF.
"Its autonomy-provider-agnostic architecture allows different solutions to be integrated according to operational requirements and customer preferences," the company said.