US manufacturer launches 41-meter unmanned underwater vehicle! Aiming for long-term deployment to help the U.S. Navy carry out "this mission"

General Atomics of the United States demonstrated its new ultra-large unmanned submarine Ranger, with a maximum length of 41.15 meters. It can carry other unmanned underwater vehicles and sensing equipment in the future. The goal is to perform continuous missions underwater for several years, and is expected to share undersea surveillance services with the U.S. Navy's manned submarines.

Military media "Army Recognition" reported that General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) released a video on November 3, showing two unmanned underwater vehicles, Ranger and the smaller GA-Ray (GRay). Both use buoyancy-driven gliding propulsion. Through repeated diving and surfacing, hydrodynamic force is used to generate forward thrust, thereby reducing the dependence on propeller propulsion for long-term navigation.

According to information released by GA-EMS, GRay is about 6.71 meters long and is scheduled to carry out missions of several weeks to several months; Ranger is planned to be 30.48 to 41.15 meters long and adopts a modular design. The payload can be replaced according to mission needs, including seabed sensing equipment, and a standard container-level mission module with an external size of about 6.1 meters long.

Ranger also adopts the concept of a mother vehicle paired with sub-vehicles, which can first transport large or smaller unmanned underwater vehicles to designated sea areas and then release them to perform independent missions. The video released by GA-EMS also shows the sub-vehicle releasing a four-axis drone through the launch tube, giving the underwater platform the opportunity to extend its aerial reconnaissance; however, the specific performance and actual mission configuration of the relevant aerial drone have not yet been made public.

However, this concept still faces engineering challenges before it can be deployed for many years. "Naval News" reported on November 9 that Rolf Ziesing, vice president of maritime planning at GA-EMS, said that the current underwater testing time of the mother vehicle and sub-vehicle has reached a maximum of 70 days. In contrast, the multi-year deployment goals set by Ranger must also overcome issues such as long-term energy supply, mechanical reliability, and continued operation of sensing equipment.

Since satellite positioning cannot be directly used underwater, Ranger and GRay plans to combine inertial navigation systems and Doppler logs for assisted positioning, and also incorporate underwater communications and new sensing technologies into the development direction. The actual performance of the relevant systems has yet to be verified.

GA-EMS hopes that Ranger can be stationed in designated sea areas for a long time in the future, performing tasks such as underwater surveillance, sensing and unmanned vehicle deployment, and reducing the service load of high-value manned submarines. There is currently no public information showing that the Ranger has been officially purchased or put into service by the U.S. Navy.