US Navy Sub Successfully Launches Drone via Torpedo Tube in Groundbreaking Test

A US Navy submarine has tried out an unmanned underwater vehicle (abbreviated the UUV) that may exit and re-enter the sub via a torpedo tube for the first time. The ability to launch a drone from a present hatch opens up new possibilities for scouting, surveillance, and other activities.

For some years, the Navy’s sub-community was experimenting with a variation of the REMUS 600 military/civilian UUV, launching and recovering it using a drydeck shelter and divers. However, the Navy’s inventory of subs that can successfully carry a drydeck shelter is limited. The launch and recovery method is also inept. Thus, the service is interested in building a variation that can go inside and out of a torpedo tube.

This would allow the gadget to be utilized across the fleet, on any submarine in service, without having to halt and deploy divers each time it is used. The only difficulty is getting a torpedo-sized drone back via a torpedo-sized opening from the outside.

The UUV must locate and drive into the torpedo tube while the submarine is moving, according to sub-warfare officer Rear Admiral Doug Perry in 2022. He anticipates that they will have the system functioning in a short time.

This new system, similar to the Navy’s existing Razorback or Kingfish UUVs, is based on REMUS 600, an extensively utilized platform invented by Woods Hole and currently manufactured by Huntington Ingalls.

The underlying infrastructure is designed to work 600 meters below the surface and accommodate high-power payloads such as sonar devices. The civilian version’s rated endurance is around 24 hours at five knots.

The Yellow Moray will be the name of the new version, after an eel famed for navigating through gaps in coral rocks. Per the development team at Connecticut-based Submarine Readiness Squadron 32, the technology was completely tested from launch to recovery for the first time last week.

The trials were performed on the USS Delaware, which is a well-known Virginia-class attack sub that was commissioned in 2020. Woods Hole’s Oceanographic Systems Lab, the Huntington Ingalls, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and the Submarine Force Pacific’s Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Squadron One were among the collaborators.

The Navy posted pictures of the UUV being brought and placed onboard the USS Delaware in a stainless cylinder, similar to an all-up round, utilizing the same handling equipment needed to move or stow torpedoes. The launch and recovery assessment, per the squadron, was a success.

If the Navy achieves success utilizing Yellow Moray, it may be deployed across the fleet. Rear Admiral Robert Gaucher of Fleet Forces Command recently told Defense News that an initiative is in the works for putting the capabilities on each submarine from 2024.

Reference: Eurasian Times

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