Fishing Trawler Adapted Into Arctic Hunter Drone Ship Aims To Scour For Russian Submarines

Kongsberg Maritime has unveiled a new fully uncrewed surface vessel (USV) design, which is based on a hardy fishing vessel, intended to meet the Royal Navy’s emerging Type 92 requirement. It calls for autonomous platforms to persistently hunt Russian submarines in the increasingly contested waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic.

Dubbed the Arctic Hunter USV, the vessel combines a proven commercial ship design with Kongsberg Maritime’s remote-control and autonomous technologies. It is being developed around an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission, with a particular emphasis on providing persistent underwater surveillance in the High North.

A rendering showing the rear aspect of the Arctic Hunter with its notably generous rear deck space. Kongsberg Maritime

The announcement, made November 9, comes as the Royal Navy moves ahead with its broader Hybrid Navy concept, which will see uncrewed vessels and other autonomous systems operate alongside traditional crewed warships and aircraft. The Type 92 is one of four new uncrewed vessel types envisioned under this effort, which is intended to significantly expand the fleet’s overall sensing and weapons capacity.

Bruce Balchin of Kongsberg Maritime, which is headquartered in Norway, told TWZ that the Arctic Hunter concept emerged from the Royal Navy’s stated desire to address the submarine threat in the High North with capabilities that could be delivered quickly and in significant numbers, using commercial shipyards.

“We’ve been following the Royal Navy’s Hybrid Fleet and some of the statements that have been coming from the First Sea Lord,” Balchin explained. “The immediate threat is submarines in the High North. I need things at mass to be delivered at mass and at pace. I need commercial shipyards.”

A rendering showing the Arctic Hunter in the process of deploying its towed sonar aray, with a Type 45 destroyer alongside. Kongsberg Maritime

Kongsberg’s response was to look at an existing commercial vessel design that could be adapted to tow a powerful submarine-hunting sonar. Rather than developing a new military ship, the company saw an opportunity to repurpose an Arctic fishing vessel, replacing its fishing equipment with the systems needed for ASW surveillance.

The resulting Arctic Hunter is based on an existing 184-foot hull design. Kongsberg plans to remove the wheelhouse and fish-processing factory, freeing up space for the military mission systems and equipment needed to operate the vessel remotely.

“Replace towing fish with towing sonar,” Balchin said, describing the basic concept. “It’s not a stretch to say we straight away got a vessel which is hardened to that environment, used to working at that sea state.”

An example of an Arctic trawler design from Kongsberg Maritime — a 184-foot hull form optimized for operations in the North Atlantic. This forms the basis of the hull form for the Arctic Hunter USV. Kongsberg Maritime

There are other advantages to starting with a fishing vessel, too. These ships are already designed to operate for extended periods in demanding Arctic conditions, with relatively straightforward maintenance requirements. They also have the machinery, power generation, and internal volume needed to support substantial mission equipment.

The platform is being designed around a relatively high-performance towed array, the Sonar 2087, developed by Thales Underwater Systems. The Type 92 is intended to provide a significant extension of the Royal Navy’s ASW sensing capabilities, and Kongsberg believes that requires a substantial towed array.

Sonar 2087 already equips Royal Navy Type 23 frigates and will be carried aboard its forthcoming Type 26 ASW frigates.

The Royal Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset escorting a Russian Kilo class submarine through the English Channel. Crown Copyright

Another critical consideration is the vessel’s acoustic signature. A sonar platform needs to be quiet enough that its own machinery and propellers do not interfere with its ability to detect submarines.

“You can have the best sonar in the world, but if you’ve got a very noisy ship, it drowns out everything else you’re trying to find,” Balchin said. “You need a very quiet platform to maximize the performance of your sonar.”

Kongsberg has considerable experience in this area, having designed propellers for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 and Type 26 frigates. The company has applied some of that expertise to the Arctic Hunter, optimizing its hull and propeller design to reduce underwater radiated noise (URN).

This propeller from a Type 23 frigate was put in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich after being rejected for service as not exactly meeting the technical design specification. Royal Museums Greenwich

The fishing vessel design already offered a relatively quiet platform, partly because of the requirements of its original mission. Kongsberg says it is further improving that performance for the ASW role.

The Arctic Hunter also draws on technology from another Kongsberg project called Reach Remote, an existing uncrewed offshore vessel that operates in the North Atlantic, deploying remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for survey work.

Rather than developing an entirely new autonomous control system, Kongsberg intends to transfer the proven remote-operation technology from Reach Remote into the Arctic Hunter platform.

“We’re taking a proven platform, proven flag-approved remote autonomy technology with a proven sonar, and then we’ve also added on another layer of military communications,” Balchin said.

Those communications will be designed to provide secure connectivity in the contested and degraded environments expected in the High North.

Kongsberg is designing the Arctic Hunter for up to 60 days at sea without human intervention aboard. The company’s existing Reach Remote vessels already operate for around 30 days at a time, providing a basis for extending that endurance.

The vessel is uncrewed by design, rather than being a conventional ship subsequently adapted to operate without a crew, and this has significant implications for its layout and cost.

“Putting anybody on it for any period of time massively complicates a ship and adds significant costs,” Balchin

Source: www.twz.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.