This is not a combat ship, but rather a concept. A floating test bed, as the US Navy calls it. A platform for testing new naval combat techniques and technologies.
In general, we will return a little later on how the United States approaches the issue of all sorts of futuristic projects, but for now, on the topic. And on the topic of working out the concept of countering unmanned aerial vehicles, American specialists have developed a system of circular (360 degrees) detection and destruction of UAVs. And she was tested on the Stiletto.
For six weeks, the M80 Stiletto fought both single drones and swarms that carried a "wide range of threats."
The automated UAV detection and combat system repelled all drone attacks.
The US Navy believes that this is a very significant step in the fight against the ever-increasing threat from unmanned aerial vehicles. UAVs really, with each stage of their development, pose an increasing threat to small-tonnage ships and can easily disrupt even certain operations of the naval forces of any country in the future.
Successful testing of the protection system aboard the Stilett makes it possible to predict that in the future such complexes may receive permanent registration on the sides of surface ships of small displacement.
An interesting fact is that the system that was tested on board the Stiletto, the DroneSentry-X, is not American. The system is manufactured by the Australian defense company DroneShield.
DroneShield claims in its July 2021 newsletter that the system tested aboard the Stiletto “has demonstrated overall detection capability, detection and engagement range, operation on the move in a variety of conditions, and effectiveness against drone swarms, including a wide range of unmanned robotic threats..
Unfortunately, it is not disclosed what was meant by the "threat posed by the swarm of drones," that is, whether it was a really organized swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles or just work was carried out against several drones at the same time.
The Stiletto was equipped with a DroneSentry-X module, which was placed on the roof of the wheelhouse. DroneShield writes that the system uses "built-in sensors to detect and disrupt UASs at any speed" and "is suitable for mobile operations, surveillance on the spot and missions on the move," and a tablet is enough to control the system.
The company claims that the system uses artificial intelligence to analyze the surrounding RF environment and identify potentially hostile drones.
Once the system identifies the specific radio signals used by these drones, it automatically triggers interference in the bands where the signals were detected.
DroneShield claims the DroneSentry-X has a detection range of over 2 km with a range of over 300 m.
Oleg Vornik, CEO of DroneShield, said in an official communique that the DroneSentry-X had successfully passed all tests aboard the M80 "Stiletto" the most friendly in relation to electronics.
The creation of DroneShield can be considered valid. Australians have contributed to the fight against drones, which continue to evolve and become an increasingly formidable weapon. DroneShield is gaining respect for its developments, which, despite being somewhat futuristic, actually work. For example, portable signal jammers that were used at the meeting between President Biden and King Philip of Belgium.
A few words about the Stiletto.
Despite the fact that some experts mocked the ship at one time, putting it on a par with "stealth losers" such as "Sea Shadow" IX-529 or "Zamvolta", but the ship is really useful.
Yes, the Stiletto was invented as a high-speed, low-visibility ship for special operations forces. Today, the ship belongs to the Carderock Naval Surface Warfare Center in Little Creek, Virginia, and has the status of a Marine Demonstration Vessel.
Initially, based on the results of other developments (the same "Sea Shadow"), "Stiletto" was created primarily in order to test the idea of reducing the signature not only in the radar range, but also in the hydroacoustic and optical ones.
The Stiletto's M-shaped hull has been designed to reduce the wake, drag and acoustic signature of the vessel, preventing it from hitting waves and stormy surf at high speeds.
The design is designed to be much more stable in shallow water than traditional monohull designs.
The Stiletto is the largest composite ship built for the US Navy. This suggests that the boat is light, durable and unobtrusive in the radar range. Plus a special coating of the case and a profile made using stealth technology.
Four 1650 hp Horsepower engines each accelerate the ship to a speed of about 100 km / h. The Stilett's cruising range is about 700 miles, the payload is up to 37 tons. The crew is three people. For a ship with a length of 25 meters and a displacement of 60 tons - quite.
But the main highlight is not stealth for radars. This just today is not particularly surprising to anyone. The bottom line is that the Stiletto flying at a speed of 90 km / h leaves almost no wake. More precisely, the trail must be unusually weak for a displacement ship of this size, sailing at such a tremendous speed. The Americans have been working on this problem for a long time, and, apparently, they succeeded. At least in terms of experiment.
This begs the question: why is this necessary at all? It's simple. It is worth remembering that the boat was conceived as a means of delivering special forces to coastal areas. And as you know, the special forces of any country do not like increased attention to themselves.
Subtle ships are reality today. But if the radar beams "bounce" off the ships from modern forms and coatings, then the wake tracks do not disappear anywhere. And the ship, the most inconspicuous from the point of view of the radar, can be easily detected in the optical range. Through the eyes of the same plane. And if we talk about the "eyes" of satellites hanging in orbit …
A very interesting project turned out from Stiletto. High speed, inconspicuous hull, little foam and waves from the ship in motion.
Perhaps it will be interesting, but the water trams of Venice are “to blame” for the invention of the Stiletto, the waves from which negatively affected the foundations of the ancient buildings of Venice. And the Venetian authorities turned to the progressive M Ship Co. from San Diego asking to develop something to reduce waves from pleasure boats.
And so the M-hull project appeared, which worked like this: the wave lifted by the central part of the hull very smoothly twists in two profiled channels, which were the walls of the hull.
The Stiletto has a double M-hull principle. Moreover, the streams of water damping each other create an additional lifting force, pushing the body out of the water upward. The result is very little drag plus a minimal wake.
Nobody says that there will be no trace at all. But it is very, very small, a regular pleasure boat creates more foam and disturbance.
So, having such advantages as modern stealth technologies, high speed and saturation with modern radio electronics, if not the Stiletto itself (I think that it is not himself), then something developed on its basis, will be able to take its rightful place in the ranks of special-purpose ships.
In general, how much money, time and other resources in the United States is spent on various innovations cannot but command respect. Yes, some of the projects mentioned above “did not play” and were scrapped. But the developments remained …
Today in the United States, a lot of attention is paid to UAVs. And, at the same time, the fight against them. The ideal is probably UAVs, which are delivered to the launch point by unmanned surface or submarine ships carrying weapons of destruction.
On the one hand, yes, somewhat fantastic, isn't it? Well, what threat can a drone with a bomb weighing several tens of kilograms carry? Don't tell. A bomb of even a small caliber that exploded next to the hull of a strategic missile submarine is unpleasant. This is the impossibility of going to sea and repairs.
And it is easier and cheaper for a drone to do this than for a man-driven aircraft.
And the US Marine Corps generally wants its unmanned surface aircraft long-range unmanned ammunition. They understand the benefits of using such means of dealing with the enemy.
And, of course, the United States is far from the only country working tirelessly in this direction.
Yes, today a UAV with a small amount of ammunition cannot do fatal damage to a large ship. But he can easily disrupt some kind of mission, causing some small damage. A swarm of UAVs controlled by a united artificial intelligence has much greater capabilities.
And sensible ways to combat UAVs in sufficient quantities have not yet been developed. Therefore, firms like DroneShield in the future will be very, very loaded with orders for the development of countermeasures to drones, since this is no less promising direction than the creation of combat UAVs.
After all, the usefulness of a UAV is not only in the fact that it can bring a certain amount of explosives to a certain point (a cruise missile will cope better with this), but in the fact that at a minimal cost, a UAV equipped with a minimum set for tracking the enemy can bring enormous benefits exclusively by delivering valuable and timely information.
So testing a system capable of constantly monitoring the environment, detecting and suppressing small flying objects is a decent step forward.
Even if we discard the fact that Americans usually exaggerate everything a little.
