DARPA and its customer, the US Navy, have been developing Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) for years. In September 2015 DARPA demonstrated a prototype of the low-cost TALONS, a fully automated parafoil system designed to extend maritime vessels’ long-distance communications and improve domain awareness.
Towed behind boats or ships (eg. the Littoral Combat ship (above)), TALONS can carry ISR and communications payloads of up to 70kg between 150m and 450m in altitude. This is many times higher than current ships’ masts (only up to 61m above the waterline) and greatly extends the sensor’s range and effectiveness.
By October 2016 information became more specific. DARPA tested TALONS aboard the Sea Hunter ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned
Vessel (ACTUV). Compared to destroyer or frigate’s mast-mounted sensors the TALONS parasailing sensor array increased surface track radar range by six times. TALONS also doubles a vessel's electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) discrimination range, and more
than triples omnidirectional radio range.
The ACTUV has a more effective anti-submarine capability when towing a kilometer long undersea sonar array. While towing this and using its hull sonars an ACTUV can interact with UUVs, seabed SOSUS sensors, surface ships, satellites, patrol aircraft, large UAVs, earth stations and command HQs. When an ACTUV tows a sonar array this frees up surface ships and submarines from towing duties. Ships and submarines can only tow undersea arrays at great expense and be vulnerable to enemy action due to slow and predictable towing patterns.
An ACTUV can also follow a conventional submarine (SSK) for more than a week, until the sub's batteries and AIP have run out forcing the sub to the surface.
Pete
Pete
3 comments:
Beware of other countries trying to snatch the towed array. Even manned platforms
can be victims:
http://www.marinebuzz.com/2009/03/11/china-warns-usnavy-ocean-surveillance-ship-to-stay-away-from-hainan-island/
Quote:
“The trawlers came within 25 feet of Impeccable, as part of an apparent coordinated
effort to harass the unarmed ocean surveillance ship. A crew member on a Chinese
trawler used a grapple hook to snag the towed acoustic array of Impeccable.”
Grabbing a SURTASS array must have been a nice intel coup for China.
I wouldn't put it past the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans etc. to try
grabbing the entire ACTUV if they had a chance. Hopefully, these will only be
deployed in areas where they can be protected by other assets.
Compare this with the more subtle approach used by the U.S. and Britain when
filching someone else's towed array:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9602103/HMS-Conquerors-biggest-secret-a-raid-on-Russia.html
Quote:
"she was pulling a device long coveted by the British and Americans, a two-mile
string of hydrophones known as a towed-array sonar. It was the latest thing in
Soviet submarine-detection technology and Conqueror’s job was to steal it. To do so,
the bow was equipped with electronically controlled pincers, provided by the
Americans, to gnaw through the three-inch-thick steel cable connecting it to the
trawler. The name of this audacious exercise in piracy? Operation Barmaid."
An interesting article on a future (present?) where unmanned platforms are
considered fair game. Even in peacetime:
http://nextnavy.com/when-kill-the-robots-is-routine/
Quote:
"To preserve some measure of status quo, the U.S. (and a few others) are trying to
grant people-less platforms some kind of legal standing and protection (“no, no,
no….that crew-less Sea Hunter USV is NOT a wreck and you CAN NOT salvage it!”). But
any faith that some fuzzy-ole’ internationally-recognized legal framework can
guarantee the free passage of unmanned military or government-owned craft is
misguided. Faith in the Rule of Law–at least at sea–should have expired long before
China snatched a U.S. glider in 2016. Nobody should have been surprised that China
grabbed an unmanned glider when it could; the U.S. and many other countries have
done similar things. Interfering with rivals’ unattended infrastructure–be it a
buoy, communication line , “ceremonial” underwater flags or even sea graves –is
common. Any rival’s unmanned kit has-and always will be-exploitable.
But too few are talking about the prospects of adversaries “messing” with or
“interfering” with unmanned craft. My sense of the future is that anything with
targeting or other disruptive potential cannot–and will not–be allowed to collect or
transmit unmolested. Far too many people give lip service to unmanned platforms. “Oh
yes,” they say, waving their hands, “in wartime, all this ISR and unmanned stuff
will be gone”, when in fact, in the future, maintaining ISR and unmanned stuff is
gonna be a constant battle–an unrecognized and unpublicized one, but contested and
fought-over nonetheless. And that is going to make the seas a whole lot meaner."
Of course
KQN
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/china-girds-undersea-battle-south-china-sea-38452
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