Thales, ASV begin trials with Halcyon MCM USV demonstrator

摘要

Thales UK and ASV Ltd have commenced unmanned trials of a reconfigurable multirole USV designed for future offboard MCM operations. A variant of ASV's generic C-Sweep semi-planing platform, the demonstrator craft - named Halcyon -has been constructed by ASV at its Portchester yard under contract to Thales. Although intended to have broad application as a generic USV demonstrator platform, the near-term focus for the private-venture programme is the UK's Hunt-class USV minesweeper programme. Thales decided in 2011 to invest in the acquisition of a USV testbed in order to be able to demonstrate and de-risk the vehicle and its potential payloads for both itself and potential customers. Following a market survey of existing off-the-shelf USVs, and detailed analysis of different hullform options, Thales selected ASV's C-Sweep design (based on a semi-planing displacement hull).