Navy PLUSNet system to revolutionize underwater warfare
Networked UUVs will operate independently and adjust to ocean currents; system relies on a series of surface and underwater sensors, as well various gliders
Here is some interesting news from the Navy League’s Seapower Magazine, courtesy of the military-minded bloggers at DefeneTech. According to Seapower, the Office of Naval Research is hard at work on a network of unmanned unwater vehicles (UUVs) that will have the ability “to sense and independently adapt to everything from ocean currents to hostile enemy subs.” Known as PLUSNet, the system is comprised of a “variety of autonomous underwater vehicles and sensor technologies.” Said Chief Rear Admiral William Landay: “If we can sense that, get the vehicles to understand that, get the vehicles to adapt to that, then they are in the position where they really are starting to dominate the battlespace.”
These distinct elements of the PLUSNet system, as desribed by DefenseTech, include: the Seahorse platform, which can easily drift while maintaining a sensing mode; the Bluefin-21, which uses a buoyancy engine to allow drifting and bottoming modes of operation; the Seaglider, used for environmental sampling while functioning as PLUSNet’s communications backbone; the Slocum Glider, a long-range deep ocean craft that employs an acoustic towed array; and the X-Ray Glider, the world’s largest underwater glider, which boasts acoustics and electric filed sensors, along with acoustic and satellite communications capabilities.
-read more in this DefenseTech blog report
