Official: Navy Interested in Moving Away from Towed Sensors for USVs

The Mine Countermeasures USV heads out for an operational assessment in this November 2019 photo. *U.S. NAVY*

ARLINGTON, Va. — The use of towed sensors provides a measure of survivability for small unmanned surface vessels but presents other problems such that the Navy is looking to move away from towed sensors in favor of onboard sensors, a Navy official said.

The Navy is soon to award a production award for the Textron-built Mine Countermeasures USV, equipped with the Unmanned Influence Sweep System, a towed sensor, said George Saroch, director for unmanned surface vessels at Naval Sea Systems Command, speaking Feb. 1 during a panel discussion at the Technology, Systems and Ships Symposium conducted by the American Society of Naval Engineers.

In 2017, Saroch said, the Navy recognized the versatility of the MCM USV and decided to build the boat to handle various payloads, which soon would include the AQS-20 mine-hunting towed sonar and eventually the Barracuda mine-neutralization munition. He sees these as building blocks to a single-sortie detect-to-engage mine countermeasures system.

“So, fundamentally, it’s focused on building a boat, and then we have separate contracts for the payloads,” he said.

The UISS has been through operational testing and shock testing, he said. The MCM USV with the mine-hunting AQS-20C system will be going through developmental and operational test this spring and summer.

Saroch stressed the importance of automatic target recognition as necessary to avoid the expenditure of neutralization charges on objects other than mines.

However, Saroch said the Navy is “very interested in getting away from towing things. You can snag a lot of things when you tow systems, a lesson from the [MH-53E MCM helicopter] community” which often snags objects while towing MCM systems through the water.

“We’re learning that lesson over again about snagging things,” he said, noting that the Navy is trying to move sensors back aboard the boat, “which brings some other operational capabilities.”