Page 9: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2024)

advanced sensors and effectors, powerful onboard process- payloads, the vehicles being deployed by actors like Ukraine, ing, high endurance, and large payload capacity. Several state Iran, and Hamas are the combat payloads. In many ways, actors are known to have such combat AUVs under develop- we are witnessing the real-time evolution of offensive mine ment, including Russia, China, North and South Korea, In- warfare via the deployment of hybrid weapons leveraging dia, Taiwan, Israel, France, the UK, Australia, and the United the stealth and lethality of sea mines, the mobility of torpe-

States. In general, they are large or extra-large vehicles that does, and the endurance and maneuverability of AUVs. For will be capable of detecting, classifying, localizing, tracking, decades, sea mines and waterborne improvized explosive de- and engaging enemy targets located on the ocean surface, in vices (WBIEDs) have provided terrorist, rogue, and nonstate the water column, on the seabed, or even on land or in the actors with a cheap but effective sea denial capability. With air. They will be capable of deploying a range of weapons the introduction of what are essentially mobile, guided mines, via launch tubes (vertical or horizontal), an internal weapons these actors have the potential to greatly enhance this capabil- bay, or external stores. These weapons could take many forms ity, and to alter the nature of littoral maritime operations. - lightweight or heavyweight torpedoes, advanced sea mines, Through indigenous engineering, access to commercial off- anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), small unmanned aircraft the-shelf technologies, or the skilled re-purposing of COTS systems (SUAS), or small AUVs that could be used as non- tech, such as Ukraine’s integration of jet ski technology into kinetic effectors, such as decoys or jammers. its ? rst generation OWA USVs, small actors with modest bud-

To be sure, these larger vehicles are poised to have a sig- gets and industrial capacities can gradually level the undersea ni? cant impact on the conduct of undersea warfare. But it is playing ? eld, gaining access to a domain where operations smaller powers and non-state actors who, driven by wartime were once too complex or costly. And as we’ve witnessed with necessity, are rapidly developing the vehicles, tactics, and aerial drones, the potential for smaller powers to exert in? u- operations that could have a more immediate and profound ence by amassing a “poor man’s air force” of missiles and effect. Whereas large and extra-large combat AUVs are de- aerial drones is quite real. Could this extend to the undersea signed to transit to an operational area and deploy combat domain as well? For now, the barriers to entry remain higher www.marinetechnologynews.com 9

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