Naval Group press release
The nine-month study will allow Naval Group to examine principal use cases and develop system architectures for an Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle.
Aurore Neuschwander, Naval Group’s Director of Drones, Autonomous Systems and Underwater Weapons said “Naval Group is very proud to support the French Ministry of the Armed Forces in the study of this new unmanned capability, which will help to kick-start the development of high capacity autonomous systems.”
Unmanned systems: the future of collaborative naval warfare
The naval use of unmanned and autonomous military systems is seen as a genuine strategic asset, and is increasingly sought after by navies for their intelligence, surveillance and seabed control missions.
Capitalizing on its expertise in the design and development of autonomous underwater systems and federating numerous French partners, Naval Group has been investing its own funds since 2016 to develop a first demonstrator of a large underwater drone (XLUUV). This demonstrator will be qualified at sea in the summer of 2023, which will enable the company to test various technological bricks in a short cycle. Among the unique capabilities developed by Naval Group and its partners is the Controlled Decision-Making Autonomy (ADC®), designed to be the onboard brain for drones, while offering sailors the ability to supervise all unmanned systems in complete safety, and to plan and carry out complex missions, as a complement to manned ships.
This first UCUV project paves the way for additional work to quickly develop the key technological bricks of such a drone, in relation to the development of the first demonstrator.
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Naval News comments:
Naval Group’s XLUUV demonstrator that will be qualified at sea this summer was first unveiled in October 2021. It was initially designed with Naval Group’s own fund. It was launched in secret in Southern France in November 2020. The UUV has a length of 10 meters (which can be scaled up to 25 meters by placing additional batteries or propulsion systems such as an AIP). Its current displacement is 10 tons.
Cyril Levy, Head of UxV & MCM Business Line at Naval Group, confirmed confirmed to Naval News during the unveiling event that future missions may include mine counter measure (MCM) or anti-submarine warfare (ASW) as the company’s F21 heavy weight torpedo (HWT) can fit in the XLUUV weapons bay. Naval News understands that the drone could also conduct offensive mine warfare operations as a Naval Group animation video showed the XLUUV deploying mine-like objects on the seabed. Deploying undersea mines is the primary mission of the U.S. Navy’s ORCA XLUUV project.
With DGA “getting onboard” Naval Group’s XLUUV project, the French military is joining a growing (but still limited) club of nations investing in the capability. This year alone Naval News covered new XLUUV projects from China, Japan, India, Germany, Israel and South Korea.
Here is our video coverage of the unveiling of Naval Group’s XLUUV project: