Largest unmanned naval exercise weighs anchor

In the exercise, the Thales Watchkeeper looks seaward, spotting passing ships and feeding data to headquarters vessel MV Northern River in the Irish Sea. (Photo: Royal Navy)

Unmanned Warrior 2016, the largest exercise for marine unmanned vehicles, is underway in the North Atlantic, off the coast of Scotland. The U.K. Navy hosts the event, and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research is a key participant.

The exercise will test many teamed technologies, including ONR’s lidar package for SeaHunter unmanned aerial vehicle. Researchers will evaluate the ability of different systems to communicate and operate as a unified force.

“These systems can help protect our Sailors and Marines from some of the Navy’s dull, dirty and dangerous missions, like mine countermeasures . . . Additionally, these systems can increase our capabilities at a more affordable cost of the conventional systems we currently employ,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Mat Winter. “Autonomy will enable our naval forces to stay longer, see farther, understand more, decide faster, do more, adapt more quickly and when necessary be more lethal.”

Mine-hunting robots will be deployed on a test range set up by U.K defense contractor QinetiQ in one set of exercises, to compare their performance with those of crewed U.K. Navy minehunters. Remotely piloted submarines are already routinely employed in manned mine-hunting, but the exercise seeks to find if matters can be taken a stage further.

Unmanned vehicles are supplied by Thales, Seebyte and BAE will participate.

Unmanned Warrior is part of Joint Warrior, a twice-yearly NATO naval exercise. Nearly 6,000 personnel, more than 30 warships and 70 aircraft will participate in joint maneuvers off Scotland during the drill.