Page 11: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2025)

an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), the

Barracuda could conceivably be reengi-

About the Author neered with increased pressure tolerance

David R. Strachan is a defense analyst and founder of and a longer tether, or untethered acous-

Strikepod Systems, a research and strategic advisory tic communications for autonomous op- focusing on autonomous undersea systems.

erations, to strike deeper seabed targets.

The Areté REMORA, developed under a Navy SBIR/STTR contract, is a scal- able, hydrodynamic payload delivery sys- tem that allows expendable payloads to be externally deployed from virtually any

UUV. The REMORA module attaches to the vehicle’s hull using a high-strength vacuum force, and is self-deployed by the host vehicle using a high-frequency,

Ç??˪¯©©¯ª¯ªª?Ç?¯ª through-hull acoustic signal. A BWBUG such as Northrop Grumman’s Manta

Ray could carry multiple REMORAs in order to deploy clusters of kinetic effec- tors against seabed targets. Subsea strike would not require a target’s complete or even near destruction to achieve opera- tional or strategic effects. Minor dam- age, such as throttled power through- put, a degraded hydrophone array, or a compromised pressure housing could achieve mission kills like localized ISR blackouts, severed C2 comms, drained batteries, or the suppression of a prepo- sitioned effectors. Moreover, repair or replacement of damaged systems would require specialized vessels, ROVs, and trained crews operating in challenging conditions. Adversaries may lack the ca- pacity, or an uncontested environment, to respond, turning a minor subsea strike into a long-term disruption.

Just as air warfare evolved to target lo- 6RXWK%D\&DEOHVDUHWKHXQFRPPRQFRQQHFWLRQIRU gistics hubs, radar arrays, communica-

WRXJKMREVDURXQGWKHZRUOG4XDOLW\DQGUHOLDELOLW\DUH tion nodes, and munitions depots, sub- sea and seabed warfare (SSW) will see

GHVLJQHGDQGPDQXIDFWXUHGLQWRHYHU\FDEOHZHEXLOG states and nonstate actors target not only

CUI, but the full range of systems and infrastructure populating the underwa- ter battlespace. At the operational level ìCôðìcñðôCíìóî of war, subsea strike will be essential

Ár¤?ÁJÁ¯ËÇ?~rÛr~¤?ö¯© for enabling freedom of maneuver for crewed submarines and other high-value

Á¯ËÇ?~rÛr~¤?ö¯© undersea platforms. But it will also of- fer a means to project power and impose

O'8ìôðò costs without crossing the threshold of open con