The company says the unmanned vessel ‘demonstrates compelling technical feasibility’ but also needs to be economically viable and be sustainable.
UK-based engineering and ship design consultancy BMT has unveiled the design of a Large Uncrewed Surface Vessel (LUSV).
The LUSV concept, was unveiled at the Defence and Security Equipment International 2023 (DSEI) exhibition and conference in September.
The company said the concept “demonstrates why LUSVs could be a necessary enabler for any future blue water navy” as a balance is sought between operational capability and cost-effectiveness. The concept is an evolution of BMT’s Highly Autonomous Warship Technologies (HAWT) programme, launched at DSEI two years ago, in which the company created a vision of a safe and secure lean crewed warship. The aim of that programme was to reduce crew numbers to a minimum by embracing onboard automation and safety, whilst still maintaining the flexibility of the vessel with a minimal crew and evolving its use into the future battlespace, setting out a technology route to enable increasingly autonomous operations.
The HAWT project was founded on in-house research and development together with insights from technology ‘horizon scanning’. Rather than setting out a concept design, the objective was to set out the fundamental ‘building blocks’ of autonomous system integration that can either be used to inform new designs or integrated into other ship concepts. In the HAWT project, BMT offered a vision of how artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent systems could be integrated into naval ship design in order to process huge amounts of data and provide information at the speed of relevance, allowing a ship and its crew to be better informed to accelerate their decision-making and operational tempo. The intention is that these improved organisational efficiencies arising would reduce vessels through-life costs, minimise personnel risk and deliver a step change in capability. That work has now been taken further in the LUSV.
At more than 80m in length, the LUSV is designed to operate in high sea states
Describing the new concept, BMT global business development director for defence, maritime and security Monty Long said: “The naval landscape is evolving and so must our operating strategies. Whilst the concept of a LUSV is not new, many navies debating their future fleet composition have yet to formally consider the use of these types of high endurance vessels to enhance its surface fleet. Our purpose with this vision was to explore the potential of LUSVs adding mass to an existing or future fleet.
“When considered as part of a mixed fleet approach, the LUSV demonstrates compelling technical feasibility. However, as we chart this course towards the future of naval capabilities, it will be imperative that we further explore the economic viability to ensure a balanced and sustainable naval strategy.”
At more than 80m in length, the LUSV is designed to operate in high sea states and was developed to address six challenges and research areas. The first is command and control, with the unmanned vessel controlled via a shore operations centre but commanded as part of a fully networked, interoperable fleet. The second is sensor data management and the need to provide encrypted operational data. The third is engineering systems, and considerations around sustainable propulsion systems and future alternative fuels. Fourth comes vessel and mission resilience, allowing the LUSV to remain on station at all times – a key factor here is to understand and achieve a balance between resilience and cost. The fifth research area addressed maintenance and logistics, ensuring system reliability and availability with different approaches to implementing maintenance, and the sixth addresses modularity, and the need to provide a flexible solution with ample capacity for modular payloads.
BMT used HAWT and now LUSV to examine key challenges around USVs, such as maintenance and logistics
BMT research and development lead for defence and security Jake Rigby said: “Despite the effectiveness of HAWT, it is not the full solution on its own. A future fleet of lean crewed warships enabled with high levels of costly automation systems could lead to a loss of mass/hull numbers for a fixed fleet cost. It needs to be built into a mixed fleet solution as part of the pivot to protean capabilities.
“The question for us then became, how can we effectively add mass to the fleet in a cost-effective manner? This led to the creation of the LUSV vision, a simplified supporting vessel that can utilise the full benefits of autonomy to help reduce costs.
“The LUSV vision strongly complements the HAWT operating concept and could operate alongside the lean crewed vessel providing cost effective, added mass to the fleet and utilising many of the same underlying technologies.”
