USV Developments Thread

gf0012-aust

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
colay1 said:
In retrospect and AFAIK that's basically one of the capabilities of a Mk 48 ie. locate a hostile with active sonar and communicate this back via tether to it's mother ship. Though this new UUV doesn't appear to a kamikaze.:cool:
Click to expand...
Mk 48 ADCAP/CBASS still has comms imprediments despite its capability - the kicker with torps such as CBASS will be when untethered comms management improves.

it will be a generational and quantum leap in smart torpedoes....

the other thing is the rapid developments in AI.

eg look at the mobbing AI demonstrated recently with unmanned harbour patrol - its not a huge leap to migrate that smartness to mobbing USV's as hunter killers in a SLOC

energy mgt is the key to all of this. just a damn shame that there is no gentle way to build a sodium generator so that the platforms run on "infinite energy" principles
 
C

colay1

Member
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  • #24
3D printing on a large scale taking a step beyond prototyping. The savings in time and money are remarkable.


ORNL 3D-prints first submersible hull for U.S. Navy - Oak Ridge Today

ORNL 3D-prints first submersible hull for U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy teamed up with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to print the military’s first 3D-printed submersible hull in just four weeks. The parts were printed in just days, rather than weeks, and production costs were cut by 90 percent...


The Optionally Manned Technology Demonstrator is 30 feet long, 4.5 feet in diameter, and made up of six carbon fiber composite sections. The Navy plans to print a second version of it to test at its wave testing facility in Maryland, ORNL said. Fleet-capable prototypes could be introduced as early as 2019...

“With just four weeks to get the job done, the Navy didn’t hesitate to get their feet wet—they dove right into learning about Big Area Additive Manufacturing,” DOE said. “The new technology deep-dive at the MDF lasted about a week. By week two they were printing their design. The rapid turnaround and round-the-clock printing of BAAM allowed the team to assemble the six pieces of the hull during the third week.”

The cost of a traditional hull ranges from $600,000 to $800,000 and typically takes three to five months to manufacture, DOE said. Using BAAM reduced hull production costs by 90 percent and shortened production time to a matter of days—giving the Navy the opportunity to create “on demand” vehicles while also saving time, money, and energy.
 
H

hauritz

Well-Known Member
3D printing has the potential of saving enormous amounts of money.

Not only is it a cheap method of production but it also means that you don't need to stockpile weapons and equipment.
 
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