Uncrewed Systems Technology 049 - April/May 2023

28 imparted motion as it crossed forwards into them,” Gundersen explains. “We also added a rigid horizontal structure we call our ‘ski’ on top of the inflatable hulls, which allowed us to do a couple of things. One, it made a good mechanical connection between the front and rear arches; and two, it allowed us to reduce the pressure in the hulls so they could better absorb wave motions. “The Proteus’ hulls were inflated to about 7 psi – which is really high – but now we’re running the hulls at around 1.5-2.5 psi.” Several further iterations followed, to explore different concepts. Critical among these was a 33 ft (10 m) version that folded to fit into a standard 20 ft container, which was vital to demonstrating the WAM- V’s transportability using existing infrastructure and trailers. The smaller WAM-Vs in production now therefore also break down into small, industry- standard container grades for easy shipping, including as air cargo. “The WAM-V 16 was developed in about 2012 for our first production run, so it was the first to be configured for manufacturing in significant quantities,” Gundersen recalls. At around that time the company also began ramping up its r&d into the uncrewed version of the WAM-V, particularly autonomous control systems, as far fewer marine autopilots were available at that period compared with now, and none were optimised for the wave motions handled by the WAM-V. Incremental progress in a WAM-V autopilot followed from 2013 until 2017, when Joshua Mehlman (VP of engineering at MAR and now senior director of engineering at OPT) joined. “Josh steered us towards the prospect of making the WAM-V a great sensor deployment platform, with its stability inherently making it more suited for gathering inspection and monitoring data than most USVs,” Gundersen says. “That got us thinking not just about different kinds of multi-beam sonars to install, but also stowing, launching and recovering other uncrewed systems, with the WAM-V potentially working as a mothership for subsurface as well as aerial vehicles.” Teaming and swarming In 2017, MAR accomplished its first ROV and UAV deployments from the WAM-Vs, at the US Navy base at San Diego. This was a maritime security scenario in which an unidentified object was dropped from a vessel in restricted waters, and uncrewed assets had to be quickly deployed to acquire information about its nature. “That was a really successful learning experience, and then almost immediately after it we did a similar demonstration at NUWC in Newport, RI,” Gundersen says. “In that one though we deployed a UAV and ROV from a single WAM-V, as an all- in-one solution, rather than on separate WAM-Vs as in San Diego.” This CONOPS forms a key part of the WAM-V’s most in-demand use case, particularly in the defencemarket. The stabilisation of its central platformas well as its open frame designmake it ideal as a launch & recovery base for swarming teams of uncrewed systems. “In 2020 we paired a WAM-V with a April/May 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The high stability of the WAM-V’s central platformmakes it suitable for integrating sensors, as well as launching and recovering UAVs... ...and ROVs. Both vehicle types have been deployed from a single WAM-V simultaneously