Page 42: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2020)

FEATURE Subsea Defense “Launch and recovery becomes a chal- the imPact oF coviD-19 lenge when a UUV might be launched from a dock, a RHIB, a submarine or a vessel with a high freeboard. Our new- No business is immune from the impacts of the COVID-19 pan- generation UUVs are all being designed demic, and Huntinington Ingalls Industries Unmanned Systems with modularity and fexibility in mind is no exception. “Massachusetts, the base of our Unmanned to ensure compatibility across many dif- Systems business unit, is currently under regulations that re- ferent mission types. quire non-essential businesses to remain closed,” said Fother-

Regardless of end customer, Fother- ingham. “The production of technology related to national de- ingham has guidance over an enviable fense is considered an essential activity, so we are continuing to family of UUV’s to meet the mission. manufacture all product lines with some modifcations. Anyone “Our main product lines have always who has the ability to work from home has been doing so since been the REMUS 100, REMUS 600 and March. This limits potential exposure of our manufacturing and

REMUS 6000. However, the technology engineering personnel and allows employees to balance work that goes into these systems is scalable,” with their family requirements. Personnel who can only work on- said Fotheringham. “The REMUS Tech- site also have the option to change to a more fexible schedule. nology Platform includes advanced core We’ve instituted social distancing requirements at our facility electronics, open architecture, autonomy to ensure employee safety, and we are doing everything we can and modularity that can be scaled to ev- to make sure our employees remain safe while continuing our erything from small-class to extra large- responsibilities as an essential business.” class UUVs. While physical parameters are designed to the specifc requirements of a vehicle, the key to this technology is independent of hull diameter, size or depth rating.’ small and medium UUV RFPs, modular- must be reliable enough to operate for

The Seaglider product was integrated ity and fexibility seem to be key. They long periods of time without failure.” into the portfolio last year. The M1, a have requested systems that can perform Advances in autonomy, artifcial intel- many different missions from different ligence and machine learning will con- 1,000 meter-rated buoyancy-driven glid- er, has been in development since 1995, platforms,” said Fotheringham. “With an tinue to push the boundaries of what is and according to Fotheringham more increasing focus on unmanned systems, possible, according to Fotheringham. than 150 have been sold worldwide. “We I think we will continue to see the need “By leveraging advanced GPUs to run are also beginning to manufacture the for advanced autonomy. UUVs act as a machine learning algorithms, perform-

Seaglider C2, a 200 meter-rated glider force-multiplier, expanding the reach of ing data fusion from sensors and main- our defense forces and helping them to taining greater situational awareness, that can go from fresh to salt water with- out the need to reballast.” complete missions more effciently.” vehicles will have the ability to adapt in real-time to their environment. Field-

As with any tech company in the sector, ing these systems also requires new ap-

Challenges Ahead resting on past success is not an option.

While technology has evolved rapidly proaches to verifcation and validation “Recently we delivered the REMUS 300, a small-class UUV, to the Defense in the subsea space, there remain chal- to ensure their safety and reliability. Not

Innovation Unit (DIU) for evaluation by lenges to work effciently, effectively in only are we investing in these areas, but the Naval Information Warfare Center,” what is arguably the harshest environ- we have also focused on building an said Fotheringham. “With advanced ment on the planet. “Our customers want open architecture that supports insertion to perform longer and more complex of new technologies and algorithms de- modularity that includes swappable pay- loads and battery sections, this UUV missions,” said Fotheringham. “The key veloped by us and other third parties.

provides fexibility to maximize endur- to being able to accomplish this is auton- Advances in autonomy, of course, re- ance and portability in easily changeable omy and reliability. With UUVs the abil- quire ample ability to invest. “As dis- confgurations.” ity of an operator to interact with the ve- cussed, we invest heavily in advancing

With the market for offshore energy hicle is limited; therefore, the autonomy the modularity, reliability, open archi- production currently is disarray, military must be advanced enough to accomplish tecture and autonomy of the REMUS markets offer potential for suppliers of the mission and overcome unforeseen Technology Platform,” said Fothering- advanced unmanned systems. “Based on challenges and changing environmental ham. “We are also investing in ways recent U.S. Navy requirements for the conditions with no operator input. It also to make the vehicles easier to use and May 2020 42

MTR