The requirement for unmanned platforms operating from land, sea and air has acquired great importance in the current warfare scenario as it removes the crew from danger and allows them to access dangerous, difficult and otherwise inaccessible situations. The majority of navies have to operate in littoral environments, which are shallow and restricted in space and thus constrain manoeuvres - thereby placing the naval platforms in harm's way. This is of special concern to submarines when they are deployed in the littorals to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions or to carry out covert operations. The US Navy has seized upon this problem and for the last few decades it has been investing in the development of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) as they are the ideal platform for mine detection. They have been included in the Navy's Long-Term Mine Reconnaissance System (LMRS) and its successor, the Mission Reconfigurable UUV(MRUUV).
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