August 19, 2015

Russian LDUUVs - Development and Uses


The Klavesin-1R or Harpsichord deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) (photos above and below) was developed by Russia's Institute of Marine Technology. This large AUV is sitting on the deck of the nuclear propelled icebreaker "Russia" (Rossiya) and being used to survey undersea oil rich Arctic waters that Russia claims. The AUV can dive to 6,000 meters. 

Like most advanced countries Russia is developing unmanned underwater vehicle (UUVs) for commercial and military purposes. (Photos courtesy Naval Drones at  http://www.navaldrones.com/Klavesin-1R.html)

Note the four thruster propellers which improve manoeuvrability and station keeping in tides or currents. 

For military uses AUVs are much less labour intensive and cheaper to operate than deep diving submarines like Russia's Losharik and the now decommissioned US submarine NR-1. However AUV/UUVs are too small to rescue people in sunken submarines (in a Kursk like emergency scenario). 

For secret missions AUVs can be carried by smaller, less specialised, submarines than BS-64 Podmoskovye (in the previous article). A submarine can deploy a large diameter/displacement unmanned underwater vehicle (LDUUV) like the Klavesin, through a vertical or horizontal multi-purpose lock (tube) or using a detachable pod (dry deck shelter) usually on the back of a submarine behind the sail. Military uses for a LDUUV include intelligence gathering, using claw-arms for submarine cable tapping , "borrowing" sea-floor sensors or breaking sea-floor oil-gas pipelines (in wartime). 

LDUUV or smaller UUV commercial applications include using side-scan radars for surveys - for  underwater pre-construction of oil and gas drilling rigs, pipeline routes and submarine cable routes.

The Teledyne Gavia Defence AUV (see website) supplied to Russia.

Russia has not developed UUVs all by itself. The UUV market it highly internationalised. Many Western companies have supplied UUV technology to Russia. One is Teledyne Gavia Iceland - which has supplied the Gavia Defence AUV. The Gavia AUV is described by Naval Drones as:

“a modular, man-portable autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) produced by Teledyne Gavia Iceland. The AUV's batteries and payloads are field swappable. Payloads include side scan sonar and digital cameras."  

"Naval applications include mine counter measures (MCM), anti-submarine warfare (ASW), environmental assessment, surveillance, Search & recovery, and port security. In 2013-14, the  Russian Navy acquired a total of eight Gavia AUVs for 744.244 million rubles [US$13.2 million]”.

BACKGROUND

The US is probably the leader in LDUUV developments. See Submarine Matters articles on US developments including:

- LDUUVs UUV AUVs and Undersea Cable Tapping? January 14, 2015 and

- UUVs Need to Complement Manned Submarines in Future, May 22, 2015.

Pete

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The USN is getting involved in the LDUUV game too. In a big way:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/08/us-navy-will-have-squadron-of-large.html

Quote:

"The Navy will building prototype large robotic submarines in 2015-2016 and testing
in 2018. According to the Navy's ISR Capabilities Division, LDUUV will reach
initial operating capability as a squadron by 2020 and full rate production by 2025."

==========================================


There's even a project to create a UAV that turns into a UUV:

http://www.gizmag.com/boeing-uav-submarine/38976/

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous

Yep the US is probably the leader in LDUUV developments. See Submarine Matters articles on US developments including:

- LDUUVs UUV AUVs and Undersea Cable Tapping? of January 14, 2015 http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/sea-stalker-uuv-lduuv-auy-and.html and

- UUVs Need to Complement Manned Submarines in Future, May 22, 2015 http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/uuvs-need-to-complement-manned.html

The Boeing patent http://www.gizmag.com/boeing-uav-submarine/38976/ is certainly futuristic though ambitious.

Regards

Pete

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Chinese caught a UUV of some type:

What Is This Mysterious Underwater "Robot" That A Chinese Fisherman Caught?:

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/what-is-this-mysterious-underwater-robot-that-a-chine-1725865223


Any idea what/whose it is? The author of the article wants to know (and so would I).

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous

The Chinese possibe fisherman discovery http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/what-is-this-mysterious-underwater-robot-that-a-chine-1725865223 if 3 feet long may well be an air-dropped sonobuoy.

Sonobuoy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonobuoy#Operation may drift on the surface (if malfunctioning) or more likely sink after a period of time. A fisherman with a long line (with hooks) or a trawl net could have picked up the sonobuoy that could have sunk to the bottom perhaps a week or years ago.

Sonobuoys are used by many navies or airforces. In the China-Hainan island region such naval aircraft dropping sonobuoy might belong to the US, Vietnam or Taiwan. If it floated many other countries may have dropped it - perhaps 1,000s of km away.

It could also have been submarine, ship, larger LDUUV or even fishing boat delivered.

Regards

Pete

Nicky said...

Hi pete,
Did you hear on the news Morocco is planning to buy the AMUR 1650 from Russia. Here's the link http://en.cihan.com.tr/en/morocco-to-buy-russian-amur-1650-super-quiet-submarine-1864399.htm

Nicky said...

HI Pete,
Here's the story on Morocco's purchase of the Amur 1650
http://sputniknews.com/military/20150822/1026060064/morocco-russia-amur1650.html

Pete said...

Hi Nicky [at August 24, 2015 at 3:52 AM and August 24, 2015 at 3:50 AM]

I'll do an article on this possible future Amur sale if not much happens in Korean submarines over the next 20 hours.

Regards

Pete

Nicky said...

Hi Pete
Not a problem because I think the Amur 1650 is the first export sale.