By Carlo Munoz
The Navy and its industry partners at Raytheon [RTN] are eying possible unmanned applications for the sea service’s torpedo systems, using the armament’s basic construct as the foundation for a future unmanned underwater vehicle, according to a senior industry official.
“There are a lot of discussions on new capabilities for the torpedo,” Kevin Peppe, Raytheon’s vice president for seapower, said during a Jan. 11 briefing at the Surface Navy Association’s annual conference. “There is an awful lot of UUV work going on right now…so it does not take a lot of imagination to put yourself in a place” where work on those two issues can converge, Peppe said.
That said, the company’s ongoing work on the Mark 48 torpedo is a prime example of where investments in munitions and UUV technology can intersect somewhat seamlessly.
The current capabilities on the weapon, in terms of persistance and communications, are ripe for further development into a potential UUV system, according to Peppe.
“Both of those issues are extremely appropo to the Mark 48 [torpedo]…so we have a [system] out there which does some great things right now, but we [also] have the capability to do more with it,” according to Peppe. “There is some extrodinary thinking on what comes next.”
Some of that thinking has centered around slowing down the weapon’s rate of travel to “ten, 12 [or] 15 knots and give it a loiter capability,” Peppe said. “It would not be hard to put a sensor package aboard it [also].”
On command and control, industry officials would look to transmit the various pieces of intelligence gathered by the UUV back to its base submarine via fiberoptic cable. The same cable would be used for command and control of the system as well, he said.
Eventually, service officials would like to incorporate a “return” capability on future variants of the system. But now, the discussion has mainly centered on what kind of configuration options can be done within the Mark 48’s structure to support the intelligence, surveillace and reconnaissance capabilities, as well as the persistence and loiter time, envisioned by Navy officials in a possible UUV system.
“How much weight [and] space can we get out?” Peppe said.
The Raytheon official was hesitant to go into further specifics on what tact Navy officials may take on UUV options for the Mark 48, but noted the Navy is keeping program officials “fully appraised of what their thinking, and we have our people…working those problems.”