Possible ASW/Surveillance Direction

I was privileged to spend a train ride chatting with Stuart Platt, RAdm (ret.) who co-founded HarborWing Technologies. There was a brief flurry of interest about this technology a few months back, just after my train ride. I offer it here as a part of a proposed direction for the shortfalls in ASW/ASuW surveillance that have been under discussion for the past few posts. A wingsail-equipped AUSV has made a multi-day unmanned voyage around a defined course, generating its own on-board power using solar and wind, with telemetry and remote guidance. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to get this sort of thing working with several basic sensor packages onboard - hydrophones, perhaps ELINT receivers. This would be an ideal open-ocean or littoral surveillance system. It would present a minimal electronic signature, minimal acoustic signature, and a very very small radar return In addition, it would be difficult to damage with shoulder arms unless you could close quite near to it - and even so, it should be cheap enough that we shouldn't care if we lose some in the course of duty. It should be possible to make these of a size deployable by the LCS, although (as Galrahn noted) it probably wouldn't be able to do major repairs. But the lack of engines should make its maintenance requirements commensurately lower, and electronics can be made modular enough for field replacement. I would imagine that the tools and materials required to perform minor repairs on the running gear, hull and wing would easily fit in the LCS mission spaces. Perhaps they might even be modified to dispense sonobuoys, for better coverage of an area.

Although these would not replace powered AUSVs or AUVs, nor perform attacks, they have the wonderful advantage of having nearly infinite endurance - always attractive for a surveillance asset.

Image of the first wingsail autonomous surface vehicle (AUSV) sea trial from Harbor Wing Technologies. Nope, I have no connection with or financial interest in the company.