Page 25: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2024)

MSC TALUGA GROUP

The AdvaNced airCraft

Infrastructure-Less Launch And

RecoverY (ANCILLARY) program aims to develop and ? ight demonstrate an X-plane with the critical technologies required for a leap-ahead in long endurance, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned air system (UAS) performance. The UAS would be able to launch and recover from ship ? ight decks and small austere land locations in adverse weather without additional infrastructure equipment, thus enabling expeditionary deployments. Unlike large VTOL systems, the small UAS size would allow many aircraft to be stored and operated from one ship creating a tactical beyond-line-of- site (BLOS) multi-intelligence sensor network capability.

Image: DARPA 4,000 lbs. and can carry 1,000 lbs., and carries an LRAD (long-range acoustic device), a laser dazzler and a gun. We wanted to see if we could use this autonomous, advanced su- per jet-ski to escort one of our HVUs (high value units). We envisioned providing this type of USV to our T-AKEs and T-

AOs to give them a self-contained way to protect themselves when they pass through choke points or high threat areas.

Our maritime security detachments can lower one into the water, and use its autonomy to monitor, patrol and defend the ship,” Bruening said. “Then we looked at it from a lo- gistics perspective. It has a big open area in the center, and can carry 1,000 lbs. If we removed the LRAD, the dazzler and the gun, now we have an open container to carry those 1,000 lbs. and go 400 miles. We looked at it as kind of a pickup truck with a roller bed that you could load up with whatever you needed to put in it. We tested this at Key West by loading the GARC and sending it out to an expeditionary fast transport (EPF). They used a remote-control actuator to open the cover and then used the EPF’s crane to pick up items from inside the GARC. In looking at distributed mari- time operations, and needing to resupply Marines ashore at a remote location in a contested area, we might not want to get the EPF in too close. But we can reach out to those Marines with 1,000 lbs. of what they need from a very safe distance.

And it’s not so expensive that we can’t afford to lose it.”

According to Bruening, there are a lot of companies out there looking at the problem of how to navigate in a contested environment. “We’re going to ? gure it out. It’s just going to take time and resources.” www.marinelink.com 25

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