US UUV / AUV Projects (Unmanned / autonomous underwater vehicle)

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It's funny undoubtedly, but it kinda highlights the issue that unmanned systems can simply be boarded or just straight up stolen. And it's not new, happened to RQ-170 back then too, made to crash land in Iran to be picked up for examination.

There's certainly an argument to be made for automated countermeasures and self destruct protocols. But these obviously open a new can of worms (imagine your automated, AI controlled self defense system thinking your maintenance crew are hostiles attempting to board, could be ugly).
 
EmoBirb said:
It's funny undoubtedly, but it kinda highlights the issue that unmanned systems can simply be boarded or just straight up stolen. And it's not new, happened to RQ-170 back then too, made to crash land in Iran to be picked up for examination.
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I did some work on XLUUV and frankly the assumption is that--yes, you'll probably lose one or two of these eventually. There's nothing particularly spicy from an engineering/classification perspective in them.

Now, if you start loading them up with mines and torpedoes then that introduces a whole slew of new problems as you mention. Not only for your own people's safety but also the fact that you're just handing over bombs to any potential rando who might run across it. But hey, that's way above my paygrade.
 
tychosis said:
I did some work on XLUUV and frankly the assumption is that--yes, you'll probably lose one or two of these eventually. There's nothing particularly spicy from an engineering/classification perspective in them.
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I'd expect that the crypto for the datalinks would be the highest value of what was capturable.
 
I'd think the 6000-meter-capable pressure hull engineering/metallurgy might be a concern.
 

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