Flying Self Emplacement Sea Glider (FSG) Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV)
Abstract
The FSG UUV merges two distinct unmanned systems: unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) resulting in a hybrid unmanned system capable of autonomous flight followed by transition to underwater operation. Flying emplacement allows these UUVs to avoid adverse ocean currents and long transit times to arrive at a needed location quickly, and without the logistic burden of a traditional manned deployment. Leveraging a novel Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) design, the FSG UUV will demonstrate this new capability to rapidly deploy undersea vehicles for a wide range of scientific and operational applications. This effort includes vehicle operation with a newly developed multi-mode avionics suite capable of command and control in both operating regimes, new power management architecture, and representative payloads. In FY 2021, a new avionics suite was integrated into the existing vehicles and the new multi-mode vehicle was vetted through a series of tests to include flights and swims up to and including a full weight flight to water landing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Source ID
- fb3ff336e0f1744b0ca56588030b083d