Surface Forces: US Navy Crippled by Incompetence
Ezoic
June 5, 2024: The U.S. Navy noted the success of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), and USVs (Unmanned Surface Vessels) in the Ukraine War and decided to adopt them to enhance the USNs ability to deal with the Chinese Navy, especially if the Chinese should attack Taiwan.
The U.S. already has several USVs. For example, there is Remus 100 that the navy successfully used in the Persian Gulf fifteen years ago. Remus 100 is a 37 kg vehicle that looks like a small torpedo. It is 1.6 meters long and 190mm in diameter. Carrying a side scanning sonar and other sensors, a Remus 100 can stay underwater for 22 hours, traveling at a cruising speed of five kilometers an hour (top speed is nearly twice that.) The UUV can operate up to 100 kilometers from its operator, and dive to 100 meters. The UUV keeps costs down by using GPS, in addition to inertial guidance. The UUV surfaces every hour or two to get a GPS fix, and then goes back to doing what it was programmed to do. Ukraine will use them to find and eliminate Russian bottom mines in shallow coastal waters.
Remus 100 was designed mainly for civilian applications (inspecting underwater facilities, pollution monitoring, underwater survey, or search). But there are similar military and police applications, notably searching for naval mines.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsurf/articles/202406050338.aspx
