Deep sea unmanned underwater vehicle

Deep-sea unmanned underwater vehicle

As the investigation of the "Beixi" natural gas pipeline explosion continues to deepen, there are signs that the pipeline explosion was caused by deliberate sabotage. This has caused a great shock to European countries, making them aware of the existence of undersea threats and endangering their undersea interests and national security. Undersea warfare, or seabed warfare, has become a hot topic for coastal countries. In response to the issue of submarine infrastructure safety, many European countries have focused their development on deep-sea unmanned underwater vehicles.

Meeting the needs of undersea warfare

A few days after the explosion of the "Beixi" natural gas pipeline, at the 2022 European International Maritime Defense Exhibition in Paris, deep-sea unmanned submarines became popular equipment . Among them, the eWROV unmanned underwater vehicle launched by a Swedish company has attracted more attention.

The eWROV unmanned underwater vehicle has dimensions of 2.8 meters × 1.8 meters × 1.9 meters, weighs about 4,000 kilograms, is powered by electricity, has a payload of 250 kilograms, a forward/reverse speed of 2.3 meters/second, and moves laterally. The speed is 1.5 meters/second, the vertical movement speed is 1 meter/second, and the maximum diving depth is 5,500 meters.

The eWROV unmanned underwater vehicle can be remotely controlled through satellite links, has high-precision positioning functions, and situational awareness accuracy can reach millimeter level. In addition, its front end is equipped with two mechanical arms with similar precision, which can lift objects weighing more than 400 kilograms and complete precise operation tasks independently. These characteristics meet the concealment, precision, and controllability requirements of undersea operations.

In early 2022, a French defense company and the military jointly launched a "Manta Ray" underwater unmanned submarine. This underwater vehicle adopts a bionic design and can float horizontally on the surface/underwater; or float or dive quickly in a nearly vertical manner.

The "Manta" underwater unmanned underwater vehicle is equipped with side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounder, hydrophone and high-definition camera. It mainly performs seabed surveying and mapping, pipeline and seabed structure survey, and environmental monitoring. For tasks such as deep-sea search, the maximum operating depth is 6,000 meters. It has three operating modes: manual, automatic, and manual monitoring. It has a battery life of 4 hours to 12 hours and a speed of up to 6 knots. It can detect underwater sunken ships, pipelines, etc., and is mainly used for mine countermeasures operations, intelligence surveillance, and reconnaissance.

Intensifying the undersea competition

In addition to Switzerland and France developing deep-sea unmanned submarines, other countries are strengthening their undersea warfare capabilities in many aspects. The Italian Navy is working with the country's telecommunications companies to protect its internet fiber-optic cables on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and is ready for action. Based on existing unmanned underwater vehicles, the UK is exploring new underwater unmanned combat capabilities, including anti-access/area denial capabilities, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, and other underwater facility protection capabilities. Germany is concerned about the security of its undersea facilities in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and is considering aggregating relevant data from private enterprises, research institutions, law enforcement agencies and the navy to draw a maritime combat situation map.

With the advancement of technology, undersea warfare is becoming unmanned, intelligent and deep-sea. The "Nord Stream" natural gas pipeline explosion highlighted the strategic value and vulnerability of the seabed, making relevant preparations particularly urgent. With the development of unmanned technology, after the Internet and space, the seabed will also become a new competitive field. Many European countries hope to protect the safety of their undersea infrastructure and safeguard their strategic interests by accelerating the research and development and installation of deep-sea unmanned submarines.