The great and mighty American fleet is in a panic. Russian submarines scare American sailors so much that the naval command decided to create an unmanned ship to fight them.
A ship that can be controlled from a distance and thereby eliminate the likelihood of the influence of the human factor during active confrontation. More precisely, according to the American edition of The National Interest, a robot ship capable of operating fully autonomously in the future, without human intervention.
In principle, it is quite possible to create such a ship. The American edition is talking about the "sea hunter". The ship is fully automated, operating in an autonomous search mode, while under the control of operators. The length, according to American sources, is about 40 meters. Displacement 145 tons. Cruising range up to 10,000 miles. Travel speed up to 27 knots.
In general, the creation of ships that could ensure the safety of larger ships is a really relevant topic. The same sea hunters, if shipbuilders fulfill all the customer's requirements, will be able to track modern submarines quite successfully. And do it off the coast of any country.
At the same time, such ships are quite cheap to operate. A modern US destroyer, again according to the Americans, costs taxpayers $ 700,000 a day. An unmanned "sea hunter" will cost only 15-20 thousand a day.
The main headache for Americans today is not only our "black holes", but also China's rapidly growing submarine fleet. The time when it was possible to treat the Chinese submarine fleet with humor is over. The Chinese have gladly played the role of an "industrial zone" for the United States and now have an excellent industry and sufficiently qualified scientific personnel.
Keeping autonomous ships in the Black Sea is stupid. Even with the use of Turkish ports, such ships will be destroyed in the first hours of the conflict. But off the east coast of Eurasia, these ships are very useful. Controlling the seas in this region is becoming increasingly difficult.
In case of danger, they will be able to quickly leave the zone of fire to Japanese or South Korean ports. And at the same time, having a fairly shallow draft, they will track submarines even at shallow depths. Where destroyers don't work.
By the way, according to the plans of the PRC, by 2030 there will be up to 75 modern diesel-electric submarines in this region. It is doubtful that these new boats will be inferior to Russian or American ones. And the presence of serious weapons actually blocks the use of AUG.
The US Navy ordered only one such ship last year. However, this year the order will be increased. How much is not yet clear. Most likely, everything will depend on the practical results of using the drone.
But what about the main competitors of the Americans? It is by the actions of competitors that one can often judge the prospects of the proposed projects. It is clear that the emergence of data on some new developments encourages engineers and designers to search in a given direction.
We have no information about Chinese unmanned surface ships. There is about creating mini submarines. There is exactly the same information about Russian projects. In particular, many publications have reported about the Piranha mini boats. It is doubtful that both we and the Chinese would ignore the promising and cheap development.
So why is the US Navy paying so much attention to these robots? Has the idea of world domination taken possession of the American admirals so that they can no longer see everything else? Or, on the contrary, do the admirals think so promisingly?
Neither one nor the other. The matter is much more prosaic. The robotic ships will do what the SOSUS hydrophones have done so far. It was this system with the use of many hydrophones that for a long time made it possible to more or less track the ships of a potential enemy near the borders of their own territorial waters.
Modern boats, alas, were too tough for this system. Most hydrophones are now mothballed. Therefore, ships-robots will ply along the shores of the United States in the hope of catching boats.
Experts talk about the terrible Russian "Varshavyanka" and similar Chinese submarines. However, just above I mentioned "Piranha". And for good reason. The robot ship will most likely not be able to catch mini-boats. Although this will become known after the end of the tests.
Yes, and already known boats will be able to successfully leave this hunter with a bow. Acoustics will be able to hear this "rumble from under the arm" much earlier than the hunter hears "game". Again the hope for super-modern equipment? Which will be …
Information about the new ship was provided to the public by a rather serious resource, The National Interest. It was the analysts from this publication who spoke about the new robot ship as an ideal weapon against Russian diesel-electric submarines. But a simple question arises: is there an ideal weapon?
So far, we can only say that the US Navy has purchased a new ship for $ 25 million. The ship is interesting. But whether he will be able to fulfill the tasks assigned to him is still a question.
