USN's NUWC looks to docking stations to extend UUV missions

摘要

The US Navy (USN) is stepping up efforts to explore how submerged docking stations might enhance the range, endurance, and data transfer capabilities of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). In a request for information (RfI) intended to "support current operational demands", the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) has invited industry and academia to provide details of various types of docking station - both current and future models- and explain how they connect with UUVs to effect the autonomous transfer of energy and data. While in-service UUVs typically demonstrate endurance maximums ofbetween 100 minutes and 40 hours, in 2013 the US Naval Research Laboratory, supported by Bluefin Robotics, deployed a Reliant heavyweight autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) on a record-setting 109-hour, 507 km voyage.