Unmanned Systems Technology 007 | UMEX 2016 report | Navya ARMA | Launch & recovery systems | AIE 225CS | AUVs | Electric motors | Lethal autonomous weapons

Boeing has developed a new class of ‘extra large’ underwater unmanned vehicle that can operate autonomously for six months at a time as a result of a hybrid rechargeable power system and modular payload bay. The 15.4 m (51 ft), 45,350 kg Echo Voyager joins the previous 9.6 m (32 ft) Echo Seeker and the 5.5 m (18 ft) Echo Ranger testbed systems. Silver-zinc batteries in the Echo Seeker keep it running for up to three days at about 3 knots. By contrast, the Echo Voyager uses the same type of batteries to power two motors to give it a top speed of 8 knots, and a diesel generator recharges the batteries rather than powering the engines. Lithium-ion batteries power the electronics. By rising to snorkel depth to recharge the batteries and discharge the exhaust generated, the craft can stay at sea for six months and travel 7500 miles. Because of this endurance, communications are via satellite link when it surfaces. The long endurance also requires redundancy and fault tolerance across the design, with self-monitoring of systems and re-planning on the fly in order to complete the desired activity while eventually knowing (through the self-monitoring) that it is time to abort the activity and head back to a port or rendezvous location.  A closed ballast and trim system avoids problems of fouling when taking in water, and allows the craft to compensate for different salinities, temperatures and pressures as it operates down to depths of 3000 m.  The payload bay is 10 m (30 ft) long and 4 m (14 ft) in diameter, with industry- standard comms and power interfaces to allow integration of commercial off-the- shelf payloads (and potentially several payloads) to support multiple missions on a single journey. “The Echo Voyager has been designed as a baseline vehicle that has the ability to carry a wide variety of payloads for a multiple sets of customers,” said Lance Towers, director of Boeing’s Phantom works division, who sees those customers being oil and gas companies or those wanting long-term monitoring. The Echo Voyager is scheduled for testing off the California coast in the summer of 2016. Huge UUV’s 7500-mile range Underwater vehicles