The French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) has assigned the Naval Group a new task through a contractual cooperation agreement to study and develop designs for future combat Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles (XLUUV). XLUUV or also known as the Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle (UCUV) is considered to play an important role in realizing underwater supremacy with various capabilities.
From the beginning of May this year and for the next nine months, the Naval Group embarked on a mission to develop a design for the XLUUV or future underwater drone for the French Navy, by studying the problems of the existing XLUUV.
It is known, currently, several developed countries in the world have developed XLUUV as an integral part of future underwater combat. Starting from the United States (US), England, France, Germany, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, India, and Israel.
Among these countries, in terms of size, the largest XLUUV is owned by the US. Followed respectively by France, South Korea, Britain and Russia-China with dimensions that are not much different.
Data on the advantages and disadvantages of the existing XLUUV are then collected to then be realized in a new architectural design and system which is predicted to be the future XLUUV design for the French Navy, competing with the new XLUUV which has been developed by a number of countries such as China, Japan, India, Germany, Israel. , and South Korea.
As is the case in aerial combat which involves more unmanned vehicles, so does underwater combat. In the future, unmanned and autonomous military vehicles or systems are seen as strategic assets and are increasingly sought after by navies around the world for various missions, such as intelligence missions, surveillance, seabed contracts.
The Naval Group is known to have started investing heavily in the underwater drone sector (XLUUV) since 2016. After years of development, the Naval Group conducted its first secret XLUUV test in the South of France back in 2020 when all eyes were on the Covid-19 pandemic.
At that time, the Naval Group's first XLUUV was 10 meters long (which can be increased to 25 meters by placing additional batteries or a propulsion system such as an AIP).
The following year, the Naval Group officially introduced its first XLUUV and will have its first public demonstration taking place in France as of this writing. Among the capabilities on display is Controlled Decision-Making Autonomy (ADC), which is designed to be the brain of the drone onboard.
ADCs also offer seafarers the ability to oversee all unmanned systems in complete safety, and to plan and carry out complex missions, as a complement to manned ships.
The XLUUV Naval Group is also strengthened by a system that deploys underwater mines and anti-sea mines (MCM) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) thanks to the F21 heavy torpedo (HWT) perched in the XLUUV weapons room.
