What is an underwater drone. A drone with a GoPro camera that will allow a person to see the underwater world. The heir to the Soviet Tsar-torpedo
Today, drones that take to the air and conduct aerial photography have already become familiar, but until recently, such remote-controlled devices practically did not look under water. But with the advent of a new gadget, the situation will change - now you can see what is happening in the underwater world.
A group of American inventors presented a project for a budget drone for underwater video filming. The result of two years of work was called Seawolf. From most of its predecessors, the device is characterized by low price, ease of maintenance and management. The undoubted advantage of the gadget is the ability to use it with a GoPro action camera.
The GoPro camera is installed behind a transparent acrylic shield in the nose of the underwater drone. The mounting turret allows you to rotate the camera up to 90 degrees. The drone itself can dive to a depth of 10 meters. The actual immersion is 30 meters, however, in this case, communication with the device may be lost.
Under water, the drone moves at a speed of about 1.6 knots, which is comparable to a speed of 3.3 km/h. The device is powered by a 5000 mAh lithium-ion battery, which provides up to 50 minutes of battery life. The robot is equipped with several lights to illuminate the underwater space.
The underwater drone is controlled by a remote control with an LCD display. It is also possible to connect the underwater device to a cable that will follow it underwater. This allows you to significantly extend its service life, as well as increase the level of security in case of loss of control or communication. The cost of Seawolf is 1000 USD.
AT recent times I use unmanned drones more and more often and in various fields. You can find out how in one of our previous reviews.
What domestic developments are there in the military and civil spheres of this class of drones? What is the practical use and commercial benefit of these devices? What enterprises are developing these complexes? You will learn all the information by reading the article from the specialists of the company “ARMAIR UAV CENTER. ”
What underwater drones are already being produced in the civilian sector of the economy?
All underwater unmanned aerial vehicles can be divided into light, medium and heavy. The apparatus of the “Trident” type can be attributed to the light classes. This drone operates at shallow depths, communication with the control panel is via wire, it can be under water for no more than 25 minutes. It has one camera, is able to move forward, backward, in an arc. The middle class of underwater drones includes a device of the DEEPFAR type, developed by the Chinese company Deepfar Ocean Technology Co., Ltd. The device can dive to a depth of 100 meters, work autonomously for 2-3 hours. Equipped with 3D camera, sonars and GPS navigation. Connecting the machine to a wired type control station. Heavy vehicles for the civilian sector are still in development, but the military is already mastering this direction with might and main.What are the developments of underwater UAVs in the military sphere?
Advanced developments are being carried out in the USA, by the DARPA agency, Lockheed Martin Corporation. The following types of autonomous underwater vehicles are being developed:- To hunt enemy ships.
- To detect and neutralize naval mines.
- For reconnaissance and guidance of missiles, ships, aircraft at underwater, surface targets.
On the last week Shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls and aerospace giant Boeing have announced that they are joining forces to create an underwater drone Echo Voyager. The goal is to arrange the supply of underwater unmanned systems to the US Navy as soon as possible.
Work on the fifty-ton Echo Voyager has been underway since 2014 in collaboration with DARPA, and recently it became known that Boeing began testing this drone no longer in the test pool, but in. Echo Voyager is the largest underwater drone in development yet, which belongs to the XLUUV (extra large unmanned undersea vehicle) class. While there are short-term dives on shallow depths, but the next step is to send the drone to great depth for a long period. According to the creators, he will be able to stay in autonomous navigation for months, independently return to the base, float to the surface and transmit information. The drone itself consists of modules, which allows you to equip it with a certain filling for different tasks.
Underwater drones are considered as one of the priority areas for development naval forces. Potential adversaries of the United States, that is, China and Russia, are improving their armed forces and American dominance on the surface of the water is becoming less obvious and guaranteed.
Another problem is the increasingly sophisticated tracking systems for large submarines. The Americans suggest that the same China is building the so-called "great underwater wall" - a system of sensors that track underwater and surface targets in real time.
The third factor is the cost of maintaining large submarines with numerous crews on board. Autonomous drones, cheap and without people, look like an attractive replacement in the near future.
Therefore, the idea arose at the Pentagon - to go under water and take advantage of the technological advantage there, creating small and less noisy than submarines drones. Ideally, the creation of “mother” underwater drones is being considered, which would carry entire swarms of smaller drones for various purposes under water.
Last year, Rear Admiral Matthias Winter said: “The Office of Naval Research (ONR), which develops advanced technologies in the field of unmanned underwater vehicles, plans to deploy the “Eisenhower backbone network” on seabed in all areas of the oceans ... We want drones to go to sea on a mission once and then operate in the depths of the seas for decades.”
We are talking about the creation of underwater bases or technical stations, where underwater drones could independently charge or undergo maintenance, transmit and store the collected information.
What is "Status-6"?
Let's leave aside for now the completely unfounded assumptions that no underwater drone exists, and everything that is wound around it is one big demonstration of emptiness, disinformation organized by the Russian military. This assumption is expressed by some observers, basing their logic on the obvious oddities that accompanied the very appearance of "Status-6" among the topics that aroused public attention.
In fact, the device was shown on a presentation album sheet during a meeting of high-ranking military officials with the country's president during a television broadcast. Those who have been to such events know perfectly well that this is impossible. TV cameras have their places, operators do not wander around the hall, pool journalists also gather in a separate group. And most importantly, when it comes to topics that are not intended for the general public, the press is invited to come out. For a general to leaf through top-secret presentations in front of the cameras is close to impossible ... or conceived.
Therefore, for the time being, we will leave out the hypothesis that the entire underwater drone is just a picture and explanations for it. We also recognize that it was presented to the public on purpose so that the American colleagues would appreciate the beauty of the idea.
And what is this beauty?
The United States is pulling troops to the southern borders of Russia
Well, firstly, that something labeled "Status-6" must exist. Deza deza but military intelligence The USA (RUMO) also eats bread not for nothing. The guys were silent for two years already - obviously, they were making inquiries. If it really was a drawing on a piece of paper, it would not have come to the official US nuclear concept.
Secondly, it is worth checking out the characteristics of the object indicated on that leaflet, coupled with some leaks that later supplemented the notorious picture. And the following is indicated on page 3 of the presentation.
The project is being developed by the Central Design Bureau marine engineering(TsKB MT) "Rubin". For those who understand this is already a lot.
Destruction of important objects of the enemy's economy in the coastal area and infliction of guaranteed unacceptable damage to the country's territory by creating zones of extensive radioactive contamination, unsuitable for military, economic and other activities in these zones for a long time.
Third - specifications: an uninhabited underwater vehicle capable of diving to a depth of 1000 m, covering distances of up to 10 thousand km and moving at a speed of 56 knots, that is, 103 km / h. It immediately clicks in the brain of any military sailor: the depth is inaccessible to any modern submarines, the speed is inaccessible, the range allows the Russians to destroy the US fleet base in San Diego without going to sea and not looking up from a cup of coffee.
To complete the impression, however, the possible carriers of such a "torpedo" are also indicated: submarines of project 09852 "Belgorod" and project 09851 "Khabarovsk".
Nuclear submarine at the parade in Kronstadt in honor of the Day navy. Photo: forden / Shutterstock.com
And then there was a leak that "Status-6" would be able to carry a nuclear warhead lethality of 100 megatons. For the specialists consulted by Tsargrad, this sounds ... well, strange. In principle, nothing is impossible, and in the museum of one closed city a model of such a bomb, created back in 1961, is stored. More precisely, not the AN602 bomb itself with a capacity of 101.5 megatons, but the one under the same letter that was made in kind, with a capacity of 50 mt. To do this, from the process nuclear reaction one component was excluded - the "Jekyll-Hyde reaction", that is, the fission of uranium nuclei under the action of fast neutrons produced as a result of the first, thermonuclear reaction. Uranium was replaced with lead for reasons, firstly, of the indispensable too large radioactive contamination, and secondly, because of real fears of doing something wrong with the entire planet.
And the fears were not in vain, as the tests showed. Only the fireball of the explosion reached a diameter of almost 10 km. The shock wave circled three times Earth. The explosion mushroom grew to a height of 67 kilometers; its sound was heard at Dikson, almost 1000 km from the test site on Novaya Zemlya.
So the question of a 100-Mt warhead on an underwater drone only causes a shrug from those who are in the subject, not to mention the technological problems when returning to the production of this kind of ammunition.
Political component
Putin's geopolitical genius: we are in the Mediterranean
But the idea seems to be not so much military as political and economic. Americans are quite realists and understand no worse than the average couch strategist that this kind of weapon is actually a weapon doomsday. Just lying at the bottom near the US Naval Base in Norfolk is not allowed by agreements. Just to shoot... well, here comes the obvious noise from a body with a diameter of six to seven meters, rushing under water at a speed of 100 km / h. Just so quietly swim close American coasts- so the Americans have a well-developed tracking system. Although it gave epic failures a couple of times, when Russian submarines spotted almost at the mouth of the Potomac.
The purpose of such an apparatus is rather not military, but political: in fact, to "zero out" all US strategic arms projects.
Indeed, points out, for example, the well-known military observer Igor Korotchenko,
given the desire of the United States to create a system missile defense to intercept Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, it is obvious that our military leadership is thinking how to solve the issue of defeating the enemy in the event of a real war, including using non-traditional means delivery of a nuclear charge to enemy territory.
As soon as this problem is solved - and it is precisely this problem that "Status-6" solves in an unconventional and radical way - all American system PRO loses its meaning. Depreciates.
In the same way, the entire American concept of a rapid global disarming strike is depreciated. Well, let's say, the Tridents smashed several positions of the Ivanovo division of the Strategic Missile Forces, most of the Yars did not take off, and those that took off are parried by anti-missiles generously scattered around the world. But with an underwater drone at a kilometer depth, no one will do anything. And especially if it operates simultaneously with missiles delivered to the coast, and even to the US ports themselves in standard cargo containers.
In general, it turns out that all US military efforts for decades have been depreciated. For decades, America has been building a system of unanswered nuclear attack on the USSR/Russia. That is, one in which retaliatory damage would be excluded or minimized. And every time it didn't work. While they could bomb with strategic aviation, the Russians could respond by seizing Europe, that is, by dropping the United States into the sea from the mainland "Heartland". Unacceptably. Then the stake was on nuclear submarines. The Russians responded again with the creation of missiles as a means of delivering nuclear warheads to the United States.
North America from space (NASA footage). Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Today, the bet was placed on the first global non-nuclear strike, coupled with missile defense systems as a defense of their territory and atomic bombs new generation, brought to Europe as a means of protecting Europe from Russian ground forces.
And now "Status-6" by its appearance on TV screens also devalues this US strategy. They built, as they say, built, but the Russians still found a way to deliver their cold revenge to its destination! And after all, what is the main thing: they don’t even have to try too hard! Blow up just a dozen ports on both coasts, cause economic upheaval, and the Americans will finish the rest themselves. If a simple flood was enough for them to crush New Orleans, then what will they do to the country after a man-made tsunami in New York?
And you have to think not about the first global impact, but about how to build a defense system against Russian underwater drones along the entire coast North America. And this is a system for tracking the underwater situation throughout maritime border, the creation of means of response and suppression, the restructuring of the continental defense system (who said that the drone will only blow itself up, and not, say, launch a small missile?) and civil defense.
Those are unimaginable costs!
And then, if you, having swelled a lot of money into unproductive expenses, wiped your sweat and sat down to knock over a glass of whiskey, from South Pole a Sarmat flies up with a dozen Yu-71 hypersonic gliders, and you are again eager to rebuild the entire missile defense system for all-round defense. If you succeed. And you think:
Maybe the Russians were right when they offered to live together?
No wonder a former employee of the US Department of Defense, Mark Schneider, expressed to one of the publications the feelings of the Americans:
"Status-6" is the most irresponsible program to create nuclear weapons, which came up with Putin's Russia.
Yes, buddy! And there is! With only one amendment: not the most irresponsible.
And the most responsive.
Shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls and aerospace giant Boeing have announced that they are joining forces to create an underwater drone Echo Voyager. The goal is to arrange the supply of underwater unmanned systems to the US Navy as soon as possible.
Work on the fifty-ton Echo Voyager has been underway since 2014 in collaboration with DARPA, and recently it became known that Boeing has begun testing this drone no longer in a test pool, but in the open ocean. The Echo Voyager is the largest underwater drone in development so far and belongs to the XLUUV (extra large unmanned undersea vehicle) class. So far, short-term dives to shallow depths are underway, but it is planned to send the drone to greater depths for a long time at the next stage. According to the creators, he will be able to stay in autonomous navigation for months, independently return to the base, float to the surface and transmit information. The drone itself consists of modules, which allows you to equip it with a certain filling for different tasks.
Underwater drones are considered as one of the priority areas for the development of the naval forces. Potential adversaries of the United States, that is, China and Russia, are improving their armed forces and American dominance on the surface of the water is becoming less obvious and guaranteed.
Another problem is the increasingly sophisticated tracking systems for large submarines. The Americans assume that the same China is building the so-called "great underwater wall"- a system of sensors that track underwater and surface targets in real time.
The third factor is the cost of maintaining large submarines with numerous crews on board. Autonomous drones, cheap and without people, look like an attractive replacement in the near future.
So the idea arose at the Pentagon to go underwater and take advantage of the technological advantage there by building drones that are smaller and less noisy than submarines. Ideally, the creation of “mother” underwater drones is being considered, which would carry entire swarms of smaller drones for various purposes under water.
Last year, Rear Admiral Matthias Winter said: “The Office of Naval Research (ONR), which develops advanced technologies in the field of unmanned underwater vehicles, plans to deploy the “Eisenhower backbone network” on the sea day in all areas of the oceans ... We want drones to go to sea on a mission once and then operate in the depths of the seas for decades.”
We are talking about creating underwater bases or technical stations where underwater drones could independently charge or undergo maintenance, transmit and store the collected information.
According to The Washington Post, the Pentagon planned to allocate about $ 3 billion for the development of underwater drones over the next few years.
In addition to Boeing, General Dynamics is also working on underwater drones, which last year acquired the robotics company Bluefin Robotics. The Bluefin-21 drone from this developer can launch its Sand Sharks underwater micro-drones and even “shoot” a small flying drone through the tube for aerial photography and information transmission.
Lockheed Martin was also able to launch a flying drone from its underwater drone, although the underwater drone had to surface to do so. The plans of almost all companies involved in this topic are to create a swarm of surface, underwater, and flying drones that can work in conjunction with each other.
By 2020, the Pentagon plans to have the first underwater group of drones. DARPA is thinking about creating underwater storage facilities for "sleeping" drones, which can be at the bottom for years and be activated in the event of hostilities.
There is another project - the creation of an underwater analogue of the GPS system, so that underwater drones can navigate in the depths of the world's oceans and at the same time not float to the surface. Companies and organizations such as DARPA, BAE Systems, Raytheon BBN and Draper Laboratory are working on a speaker system of this kind. In parallel, DARPA is exploring the possibility of installing small detachable antennas on underwater drones to transmit electromagnetic signals in aquatic environment. Testing of the new antennas will begin this summer.
If so far underwater drones are used mainly for passive information gathering, then in the future they will be assigned transport and logistics functions, and later - shock ones.
Even the UN has already taken care of the development of maritime unmanned systems. It is noted that since underwater communication with drones is one of the main problems, underwater systems are becoming more and more autonomous, and the day is not far off when they will perform not only reconnaissance or logistical functions, but also use weapons. It is at sea, according to UN rapporteurs, that the first appearance of autonomous “killer robots” can be expected, since underwater operations do not attract as much attention from the public, the media and human rights activists as air strikes by unmanned systems.
Ilya Plekhanov