Naval Drones

https://www.exail.com/news/exail-achieves-world-first-with-1100-nautical-mile-autonomous-usv-transit
The 16-meter platform has just completed an unprecedented 1,100-nautical-mile (2,000 km) transit from La Ciotat – France, to Troia – Portugal, to join NATO’s REPMUS 2025 exercise.

Sailing past the Balearic Islands and through the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the world’s busiest maritime passages, the DriX O-16 completed the voyage in six days without port calls.

Operated in supervised autonomy from Exail’s Remote Operation Center (ROC) in La Ciotat, the mission demonstrated endurance, situational awareness, and reliable decision-making in dense traffic.

During the transit, the DriX O-16 also conducted seabed mapping operations with a Kongsberg EM304 multibeam echosounder, further demonstrating its capacity to deliver valuable data while underway.
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • image.png
    image.png
    1.7 MB · Views: 15
  • image.png
    image.png
    671.5 KB · Views: 12
On a tangent:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dqzex21g9o
Robotic sailboats developed by a start-up company based in Plymouth have been used to gather data in the Caribbean's "hurricane alley".

Oshen has deployed what it called a "constellation" of five C‑Star autonomous sailboats to the stretch of the Atlantic Ocean - where tropical storms often form.

The small, robotic sailboats - each just 1.2m (3.9ft) long - were selected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Southern Mississippi for the 2025 hurricane monitoring programme.
Click to expand...
 
Unguided 122mm rockets is certainly an interesting armament choice… id like to see these firing guided munitions of some sort.
 
Forest Green said:
I wonder will any drones be produced that deliver naval mines to the mouth of naval bases?
Click to expand...
That's what Mk67 SLMM was for. And the replacement unit, CML(?) CDM. Basically an electric torpedo to get there, then it sinks to the bottom and waits.

Offensively, that's the job of something submerged, not scooting around on the surface.

Edit: Defensively, you could use something on the surface, but I would not want to send a manned boat/ship out to maintain such a minefield once laid.
 
Last edited:
NMaude said:
Is that something similar to the Mk-60 CAPTOR?
Click to expand...
Sounds similar in nature with the difference being that CAPTORs can be delivered by submarine, ship or aircraft, whereas SLMMs are sub-only. SLMM also sound like a torpedo that lays mines, whereas CAPTOR contains a Mk46 torpedo that is deployed and waits around for a target, like a mine, but then activates torpedo mode. As a result the target doesn't have to come as close to get a dose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_60_CAPTORhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_Launched_Mobile_Mines
 
Last edited:
Scott Kenny said:
That's what Mk67 SLMM was for. And the replacement unit, CML(?). Basically an electric torpedo to get there, then it sinks to the bottom and waits.

Offensively, that's the job of something submerged, not scooting around on the surface.

Edit: Defensively, you could use something on the surface, but I would not want to send a manned boat/ship out to maintain such a minefield once laid.
Click to expand...
I believe the new SLMM replacement has the acronym MEDUSA. There is also the Cladestinely Deployed Mine, which appears to more or less be a modern Stonefish and should have entered service several years ago, and a new CAPTOR called Hammerhead that is probably in testing.
 
NMaude said:
Is that something similar to the Mk-60 CAPTOR?
Click to expand...
No, it’s a mk37 modified to swim out along a pre routed course and then sink as a bottom mine. MEDUSA would use an electric motor section to drop two CDMs. There was briefly a mk48 project to deploy two mines each as well that was cancelled in the late 90s/early 2000s IIRC.
 
Last edited:

Thales Launches Sonar 76Nano to Meet NATO Underwater Battlespace Requirements​

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-new...eet-nato-underwater-battlespace-requirements/
NATO navies are acquiring maritime uncrewed systems as host platforms for much of this increased sensing capacity. Thales has designed Sonar 76Nano largely for such uncrewed systems. “Thanks to its modular and flexible design, this sonar system can be deployed onboard a wider range of uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) and seabed monitoring systems rather than being limited to large, high-value platforms,” Thales said, in a statement on 15 December.
Click to expand...
 
First naval drone strike on a submarine. Although how they attained the footage is even more interesting.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2000583195406832116
View: https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/2000583195406832116?s=20

https://twitter.com/x/status/2000883487239286833
View: https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2000883487239286833?s=20

Ukraine strikes Russian submarine with ‘Sub Sea Baby’ drone​

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-new...es-russian-submarine-with-sub-sea-baby-drone/
Targeted sub now sitting much lower than its buddy, notice the disappearance of the tail behind the two dots.
1765982185983.png

The other two subs have now been moved, but the targeted one is static.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2000958140934762569
View: https://x.com/Schizointel/status/2000958140934762569?s=20

https://twitter.com/x/status/2001653278182928527
View: https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2001653278182928527?s=20



https://twitter.com/x/status/2000581616901435398
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom