The U.S. Army’s 160th SOAR has landed an MH-47G Chinook on an autonomous Sea Machines barge for the first time, advancing naval logistics and drone integration.
Sea Machines Robotics has announced that an MH-47G Chinook operated by the Special Operations Aviation Regiment (160th SOAR) successfully conducted landing and replenishment operations from one of its unmanned, autonomous barges.
This flight test marks the first time disclosed to the broader public that a U.S. Helicopter, let alone one operating with one of America’s premier Airborne Special Operations Forces, landed and replenished from a vessel of this type under autonomous operation. Sea Machines also clarified that these barges can replenish surface vessels and shore installations alongside rotorcraft.
Naval News previously reported on when Sea Machines first received notice to manufacture and trial one of these autonomous conversion kits, designated as the SM300, back in early 2021 with a total of $3.1 million dollars dedicated to development and deployment efforts. Since then, the efforts mostly remained out of the public eye, with Sea Machines working with the Department of Defense to bring the project to fruition.
The SM300 can see utilization on numerous manned vessels of varying size, classes, and performance to convert them to long range autonomous operation through the usage of common architecture, hardware, and software. Sea Machines has demoed this capability on barges large enough to accommodate one the U.S.’s largest helicopters to vessels roughly the size of the average rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB), sized at roughly 20-30 feet.
Autonomous replenishment at sea offers massively improved flexibility for America’s helicopter fleet, including Army Attack and transport helicopters which would otherwise have no place to operate from or would lack the range without a stopover/alternative place to land. Integration with one of the U.S. Army’s most elite unit demonstrates a willingness to integrate this technology to better enable America’s best who are routinely tasked with immensely complex and critical operations.
Bringing Rotary-Winged Aviation Back
Rearming Helicopters is one of the major concerns alongside improving resupply and operational flexibility, as an increasingly dense proliferation of short-ranged armaments and potentially interceptor drones make front-line operations increasingly risky.
Part of this has been the development and integration of smaller-class (500lbs in weight or less) cruise missiles which can dramatically increase the range of Army, Marine, and Navy helicopters. Naval News reported on how munitions such as L3Harris’s Red Wolf have already seen testing from Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper Attack Helicopters in the land/maritime strike role, giving helicopters a weapon with a 200 Nautical Mile range.
Additionally, the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army continue to test the concept of utilizing helicopters to carry large number of FPV or smaller utility drones, giving the ability to launch drone swarms from helicopters. In related developments, The Defense Post recently covered the test firing of an Anduril Altius 700M attack drone/loitering munition from an army MH-60M Black Hawk, which serves to offer a more medium range beyond line of sight capability lighter than a cruise missile yet heavier than most FPV drones.
There have also been ongoing efforts and upgrades to U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Army helicopters to better counter adversary group 2 and 3 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Navy MH-60S Black Hawks, Marine Corps AH-1Z Vipers/UH-1Y Venoms, and Army MH-60s/AH-64D/Es received the capability to employ the Advanced Precision Kill Weapons Systems II (APKWS II) guided rockets as a low cost drone hunting option.
