Unmanned surface vehicle
[7] The regulatory environment for USV operations is changing rapidly as the technology develops and is more frequently deployed on commercial projects.
Organisations that contributed to the development of the MASS Code of Practice include The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA), Atlas Elektronik UK Ltd, AutoNaut, Fugro, the UK Chamber of Shipping, UKHO, Trinity House, Nautical Institute, National Oceanography Centre, Dynautics Limited, SEA-KIT International, Sagar Defence Engineering and many more.
[citation needed] By the end of 2017, Sagar Defence Engineering became the first company in India to build and supply USV to a Government organization.
[citation needed] As early as in World War I Germany designed and used remote-controlled FL-boats to attack British warships.
Lines sailed 161-nautical miles over two days, from Tsuruga to Sakai, successfully completing the first crewless sea voyage to include docking of an autonomous coastal container ship, in a two-day trial.
Hundreds of decisions relating to mission goals, payload requirements, power budget, hull design, communication systems and propulsion control and management need to be analysed and implemented.
Interface types (broadly) in order of size/power: While many of these protocols carry demands to the propulsion, most of them do not bring back any status information.
Safety is a critical concern, especially at high power levels, but even a small propeller can cause damage or injury and the control system needs to be designed with this in mind.
[3] Other drivers for USV uptake have changed through time, including reducing risk to people, spatio-temporal efficiency, endurance, precision and accessing very shallow water.
[30] In 2020, the British USV Maxlimer completed an unmanned survey of 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi) of seafloor in the Atlantic Ocean west of the English Channel.
[37] One of the saildrones completed the mission, traveling 12,500 miles (20,100 km) over the seven month journey while collecting a detailed data set using on board environmental monitoring instrumentation.
[41][42] Saildrone and NOAA deployed five modified hurricane-class vessels at key locations in the Atlantic Ocean prior to the June start of the 2021 hurricane season.
New regulations and monitoring requirements have created a need for scalable technologies such as robots for water quality sampling and microplastics collection.
In addition, military applications for medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSVs) include fleet intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare.
It is the first unmanned naval platform programme in this class of ships, which will likely play a major role in supporting the Distributed Maritime Operations[54] strategy of the U.S. Navy.
This demonstration was part of Indian Navy's Swavalamban 2024 self reliance in technology contest to enable the development of autonomous vessels for various military applications.
[66] Naval News reported that little damage had occurred to either of the two warships that were hit by the small USVs, a Russian frigate and a minesweeper.
[69] By January 2023, SpaceX restricted the licensing of its Starlink satellite-internet communication technology to commercial use, excluding direct military use on weapon systems.
"[70] The potential for wider use of USVs to impact the outcome of the conflict is not settled, however, as both physical constraints on existing technology and emerging counter-USV capabilities may render these vessels vulnerable.
[71] On 4 August 2023, the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Ropucha-class landing ship was seriously damaged in the Black Sea Novorossiysk naval base after it was struck by a Ukrainian Maritime Drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT.
[75][76][77] On 14 February 2024, the Tsezar Kunikov, a Ropucha-class landing ship was sunk off Alupka by Ukrainian HUR MO "Group 13" forces using MAGURA V5 USV.
Due to the drone attack on the Sevastopol Naval Base in October 2022, Russian forces had deployed several early countermeasures.
A main early change by mid-2023 was the use of dazzle camouflage, which according to Reuters is "designed to disguise a ship's heading and speed at sea — aims to confuse modern operators of suicide drones and satellites and prevent them from easily identifying important ships", while gunfire from helicopters can be used to destroy Ukrainian drones during an attack.
Ukraine is developing autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to increase offensive capability against improved Russian USV defenses.
[83] An emerging field of research examines whether the proliferation of unmanned surface vessels can impact crisis dynamics or intra-war escalation.
An exploratory report on the subject from the Center for Naval Analyses suggests seven potential concerns for military competition, including accidental, deliberate, and inadvertent escalation.
The ships developed by three institutions could carry up to five people, collect waste, deliver goods, monitor the environment and provide "on-demand infrastructure".
