Echo Voyager & Russian LDUUVs as Intelligence Gatherers & Propulsion Options

Youtube description "Published on Mar 10, 2016. Echo Voyager, Boeing’s latest unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV), can operate autonomously for months at a time thanks to a hybrid rechargeable power system and modular payload bay. The 51-foot-long [15.5 m] vehicle is the latest innovation in Boeing’s UUV family, joining the 32-foot Echo Seeker and the 18-foot Echo Ranger."

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Echo Voyager may be the largest of a rapidly expanding group of Large Diameter (or Displacement) Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (LDUUVs).

Much more sensor and propulsion capability for its small size can be packed into the Voyager because there is no need for manned life support equipment (no oxygen, water, food, or air conditioning) and far fewer safety measures. 

"Missions", 0:55 seconds into the Youtube, are displayed very briefly - so here they all are for slower reading:

-  Critical Infrastructure Protection [of naval bases, ports, coastal nuclear reactors, oil terminals]

-  Weapons Platform [small torpedos, mines and a whole Voyager might be rigged to explode]

-  Unmanned Aerial Vehicle [UAV] Operations [launching UAV]

-  Deep water Search and Retrieval. If the smaller Echo Seeker can dive 6,000 meters then Echo
   Voyager is highly likely to operate 6,000m down as well. For retrieval/laying
   of SOSUS/IUSS sensors, disruption/tapping opponents submarine cables/seafloor sensors working 
   with and in the special missions extension of  USS Jimmy Carter special missions and USS/USNS
   surface ships. 

-  Anti-submarine Warfare Search and Barrier. A small towed sonar array working with hull and bow
   sonars might be useful particularly against an opponents' SSKs and other large UUVs. 

-  Submarine Decoy. Acting like a slow moving or stationary submarine

-  Mine Countermeasures. Detecting and perhaps destroying mines

-  Battlespace Preparation. Gaining intelligence (eg. signals intercept and optical (via photonics mast)
   prior to a special forces operation on a beach or port

Improvements in the electrics, electronics and communications to UAVs will accelerate the development of UUVs like Echo Voyager. How autonomous Echo Voyager is will depend on the mission - particularly if it is used as a weapon (weapon uses would require closer human supervision). 

Its endurance of around 4 months and 5,000nm (max) will depend on its energy source. Lithium-ion Batteries (LIBs) may be standard. But a choice of hydrogen/LOX fuel-cell or small diesel engine may recharge the LIBs. 

ASW Uses

The increasing size and capabilities of LDUUVs are coming at a time when the capabilities of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) sensors and weapons are also increasing.

SeaWeb ASW sensors summarised as "eyes in the sky" and "ears in the sea" are becoming more sensitive perhaps making ever larger submarines all the more detectable. 

These are all putting traditional manned submarine operations at greater risk particularly slower moving conventional diesel-electric submarines (SSKs).

An SSK moving at its most efficient LIB or AIP speed of 4 knots may not realise that a very large LDUUV like the Echo Voyager has tailed it (in its "baffles") for two weeks. A 51 foot Echo Voyager is much smaller in length (hence stealthier) than a submarine. Even a WW2 Japanese 2 man submarine was 78 feet long.

An Echo Voyager may look large by UUV standards but it may be very difficult to detect if it is dull gray/black, remains at about 600 meters or deeper, has an anechoic coating and is its discrete propulsion.

Different Propulsion Solutions

Propulsion may come in at least three modes, depending on use and level of quietness (discretion) required:

1(a).  Maximum discretion might be achieved by advanced battery only (including lithium-ion batteries). A mother submarine (eg. USS Jimmy Carter) could recharge Echo Voyager while Voyager's is sitting on "Jimmy's" back behind the sail.

(above and below) Russia's Klavesin-1R ("Harpsichord") LDUUV. It, or a larger version, may be Russia's Echo "Voyager-ski". It is coloured high visibility civilian yellow but the military version would come in obscure Fifty Shades of Grey if tailing Western subs or tapping Western undersea cables, etc. Also see  http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/russian-lduuvs-development-and-uses.html. 

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1(b).  The Russian submarine equivalent is a modified Delta IV (designated BS-64 Podmoskovye). This Delta IV could recharge the Russian equivalent LDUUV (perhaps Russia's current sized Klavesin-1R or an enlarged version). Note it could have been such a Russian LDUUV that was sighted off Stockholm, Sweden in 2014-15.

Delta IV BS-64 Podmoskovye is likely alternatively based at Russia's Northern Fleet when tapping Atlantic undersea cables and with the Pacific Fleet (after Pacific cables).

2.  To tail a submarine or reconnaissance near an opponent's coast considerable discretion but also greater range might be required. A hybrid advanced battery and fuel-cell AIP solution may quietly extend range.
  -  A diesel-snorkel combination (to recharge batteries) instead of fuel-cell AIP may be appropriate (though noisy at times).
  -  Reliance on fuel-cell with batteries that are only for backup is another combination.

3.  For non-military uses quiet (discrete) operation is far less important. A different hybrid solution may be appropriate. This time an advanced battery together with regular surfacing to run a diesel engine to recharge the batteries may be appropriate. 

Sideview of an Echo Voyager (Photo courtesy Boeing)

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Other major points about Echo Voyager are:

-  A military Echo Voyager could extend its range and mission capabilitities if it is considered disposable - on a one way mission. At the end of a mission non-explosive self-destruct equipment could be used to erase its hard disks and destroy other classified equipment. 

-  A 2015 gizmag article reported on Boeing patents for a UAV that turned into a UUV.

-  Voyager could use its antenna to regularly receive encrypted data to give it further instructions.

-  It could use small periscopes.

-  An unescorted, $multi-million Echo Voyager, when surfaced to run a diesel, may be rammed by a boat or ship. It could also be snagged (at any depth) by a trawl net. It could intentionally be "kidnapped" by economic opponents. So there are even civilian risks of unescorted operation.

-  Sea trials of the Echo Voyager are planned to take place off the coast of California in June-August 2016.

Pete