Last week, crews from USS Delaware (SSN-791), a Virginia-class attack submarine, conducted a launch and recovery of a REMUS medium Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV).
According to a press release, during the operation dubbed “Yellow Moray”, HHI’s REMUS UUV was launched from the Delaware’s torpedo tube and was recovered the same way.
“The Yellow Moray system will provide the U.S. submarine force with additional mission capability, enhancing what the U.S. Navy’s submarines can provide our nation’s unified combatant commands around the globe,” stated the release.
The recent test marks the second such test involving submarines launching and recovering UUVs in such fashion. A similar test was conducted by Submarine Force Pacific last week. That test involved a L3Harris-produced UUV.
The two successful tests are paving the way for the U.S. Navy’s effort to deploy a torpedo tube-launched and recovered medium UUV by next year.
One such system currently in development is the US Navy’s Razorback. The initial version of the UUV was based around the REMUS 600 and could only be launched from dry deck shelters, needing divers to be launched and recovered. The Navy is currently undertaking an effort which has an industry team composed of Leidos and L3Harris Technologies seeking to address the challenges with the prior Razorback. The companies are working together to bring a new version of the Razorback that will be easier to recover and launch by using the torpedo tubes.
Megan Eckstein of Defense News, recently reported that the new Razorback variant is on schedule to clear critical design review (CDR) this year as planned.
Alongside the development of the new Razorback variant, HII is working on a new capsule for the UUV called the Shock and Fire Enclosure Capsule (SAFECAP). A new capsule that, besides aiding in the launch and recovery of the UUVs, will bring a new layer of safety for the submarine crews.
Due to the dangers of working with lithium-ion batteries, which the UUVs will be utilizing, there’s always the possibility of a high-energy casualty event. Therefore, SAFECAP is there to monitor the health of the batteries on the UUV using a Battery Casualty Detection System and in case of an event, contain and stop the high-energy event.
Naval News understands that, to date, the Royal Swedish Navy’s submarine flotilla is the only service in the world to field an operational system able to retrieve torpedo-shaped UUVs (and bring them back inside the submarine via the torpedo tube). The Swedes are using, since 2019, a system designed by Saab known as SubROV.
