Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Pelican
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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The Royal Navy will shortly be issuing a contract opportunity notice for a requirement to develop Concepts of Operation (CONOPS) for the future use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV).


The service has issued a ‘Prior Information Notice’ in order to give notice to the market of the upcoming contract opportunity and provide the opportunity for collaboration within industry.

“The requirement needs to be delivered by the end of the financial year 21/22 and is expected to have a budget of £0.4m (Ex VAT), the upcoming notice will be OFFICIAL however the contract deliverables will be classified SECRET.

The contract will comprise of three non-lethal mission sets (Anti-Submarine/Surface Warfare; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; and Seabed Warfare); these will be used by the study to consider AUV operational employment over the next 30 years. In each of the three cases, the output comprises a CONOPS including the full range of operational employment of vehicle and systems and an outline of the likely operational constraints, particularly technical challenges.

The CONOPS will be presented in the form of a Joint Concept Note; there is no prescribed format but a logical structure along the following lines is recommended. A short concept production paper will be provided to aid the process. As a guide, the concept should be no more than 50 A4 pages including foreword, preface, and lexicon; with the addition of cover sheets, pictures, and editorial processing the final published form should not exceed 70 pages.

a. Preface. These should incorporate the purpose, context, aims and assumptions.
b. Describe the problem. The drivers for the concept and the operational environment should be explained.
c. Detail of the Concept. The themes and ideas within the concept should be ordered and articulated to provide insights and impacts. Analysis using the Defence Capability Framework will focus the work and ensure the product is comprehensive.
d. Implications for Capability Delivery across the Defence Lines of Development (DLODs).
e. Conclusions and Recommendations.”

The estimated date of publication of contract notice is the 3rd of December 2021.

Source UKDJ
HMS Pelican 1938 - 1958 GGCV L86 U86 F86 What I Have I Hold ~ A wonderful bird is the Pelican its beak can hold more than its belly can.
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Pelican
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Royal Navy looks to drones to deliver lightweight supplies at sea


The Navy’s crucial support arm is looking at using drones to deliver mail drops and other supplies to ships in the middle of the ocean.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) – whose ships and sailors have supported Royal Navy operations since 1905 with fuel, food, spare parts, ammunition and other supplies – is looking into the possibility of crewless aircraft performing some of the more routine, lighter duties.



The classic image of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is of a tanker sailing parallel with a warship and either pumping fuel into its tanks via a hose, or transferring supplies in crates and on pallets on a jackstay line slung between the two vessels. But helicopters are also used extensively to move loads around the fleet, typically in large nets carried beneath the aircraft.



During the recent Carrier Strike Group deployment supporting HMS Queen Elizabeth’s mission to the Pacific and back, supply ship RFA Fort Victoria shipped nearly 900 loads to the carrier and other ships in the task group, encompassing food and drink, general stores, spare parts, medical supplies, mail and parts for F-35 stealth fighters and Merlin and Wildcat helicopters – over 354 tonnes of supplies in all – while tanker RFA Tidespring carried out 67 ‘vertical replenishments’ as they are known.



While some loads are too heavy for current small-scale drones to transport, seven out of ten resupply missions involve the transfer of loads up to 100lbs/45kg, so the head of the RFA, Commodore David Eagles, wants to see if the work is ‘dronable’.

Continues at - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... rfa-drones - Note photos.
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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RE TWEET FROM NAVY LOOKOUT

Follow-on to MANTA on the way. Project CETUS seeks extra-large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle demonstrator for Royal Navy. MANTA is around 9 tons and 9 m, while for CETUS i've found an indication of 27 tons and 12 m, so a substantial step up.

See - https://twitter.com/Gabriel64869839/sta ... 50/photo/1

And - https://www.defenceonline.co.uk/2022/01 ... -contract/
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HMS Pelican 1938 - 1958 GGCV L86 U86 F86 What I Have I Hold ~ A wonderful bird is the Pelican its beak can hold more than its belly can.
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Royal Navy looking for ‘Extra Large’ drone submarine

Project CETUS will see the design and build of an ‘Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle’ which may one day work alongside Astute-class attack submarines.
Titled “AUV DEMONSTRATOR DESIGN, BUILD AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT CONTRACT”, the contract tender notice has a value of £21.5m. There are currently no other available details aside from some technical details. The following is the notice.
See - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/royal-n ... Bb7AcyqF2c
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Royal Navy ‘Vampire’ drones move a step closer


The Royal Navy is moving forward with ‘Project Vampire’, a plan to procure low-cost fixed-wing drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in addition to electromagnetic operations and threat simulation.

According to the contract tender notice, the outline of the project is as follows.
“Project VAMPIRE sits within the Develop Directorate of Navy Command and aims to address a number of capability problem sets utilising a low-cost Fixed Wing Uncrewed Air Vehicle (UAV) as a means for the development of operational concepts, payload types, and associated communication and digital architecture.”

According to the contract tender notice, Phase 1 of project Vampire will run as a 4 year project with an option to extend by 1 year until 31 March 2026.
The project is being contracted to deliver the following:

Continues at - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/royal-n ... UwhduZj54k
HMS Pelican 1938 - 1958 GGCV L86 U86 F86 What I Have I Hold ~ A wonderful bird is the Pelican its beak can hold more than its belly can.
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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SD Northern River inbound to Portsmouth at sunset today after supporting autonomous boat trials south of the Isle of Wight (boat visible on deck).
See - https://twitter.com/NavyLookout/status/ ... 5327339525
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Pelican wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 10:28 pm SD Northern River inbound to Portsmouth at sunset today after supporting autonomous boat trials south of the Isle of Wight (boat visible on deck).
See - https://twitter.com/NavyLookout/status/ ... 5327339525
I hope it didn't hit the Gosport ferry ;-)

Jim
HMS Raleigh 1963 , HMS Collingwood 1963 & 67 , HMS Ark Royal 1964-7, HMS Undaunted 1968-71, HMS Victory (Fleet Maintenance Group) 1971-72, HMS Exmouth 1972-74
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Then 28 years in the Fire Brigade
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Pelican
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Navy Releases Timeline For Mysterious 2019 “UAS Swarm” Involving Warships Off California

An official unredacted presentation shows how an encounter with the swarm went down, as well as an infrared image supposedly showing the vehicles.

See - https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... bQNCkMi8Co
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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Chinese and Saudi firms create joint venture to make military drones in the kingdom

Saudi and Chinese industry have joined forces to design and build military drones in the kingdom.

Advanced Communications and Electronics Systems Co. signed an agreement with China Electronics Technology Group Corp., with the two companies announcing their tie-up during the World Defense Show in Riyadh, which took place March 6-9.


The joint venture, named Aerial Solutions, will see CETC establish a research and development center and create a team that would manufacture different types of UAV systems. These are to include communications, flight-control, camera, radar and wireless-detection systems.

CETC specializes in manufacturing security electronic information systems, including electronics equipment, communication devices and software.

The new venture will also focus on developing electric-powered vertical-takeoff-and-landing drones, anti-drone solutions, analytics, helicopter products and radar systems.

Continues at - https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/20 ... 6O9vEcXBiY
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Re: Unmanned Drones - All Types for Military and Naval Use

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SAIL DRONES

A Royal Navy-led task force in the Gulf has trialled the use of solar and wind-powered drones. Sail drones – which look like sailboards, but are packed with cutting-edge sensors to monitor activity – were tested in the approaches to Bahrain by the team running Operation Sentinel.
They were loaned to the task force by the US Navy and they looked at how they might use them on a security patrol, working hand-in-hand with surface ships.
See - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... PzHfnB9flQ
HMS Pelican 1938 - 1958 GGCV L86 U86 F86 What I Have I Hold ~ A wonderful bird is the Pelican its beak can hold more than its belly can.
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