Sea Technology

NOV 2016

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

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26 st / November 2016 www.sea-technology.com detection, classification, identifica- tion, neutralization and verification. It is equipped to search the entire water volume and operate underwa- ter vehicles to identify and neutralize mines. Seagull changes the dynamics of anti-submarine operations by cre- ating a threat to submarines using a cost-effective and available asset, re- placing and augmenting manned as- sets with minimal threat from subma- rines. It empowers a surface vessel or naval base commander with offboard, available and rapidly deployable anti- submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities to protect critical sea areas and high- value assets from submarine as well as sea mine threats. A few months following the sys- tem's launch, Seagull successfully completed a torpedo launch. The tri- als, performed out of Israel's Haifa port in June, demonstrated the capa- bility of Seagull to install and launch lightweight torpedoes, adding to the advanced capabilities of the USV. Ofer Ben-Dov, vice president of the naval systems business line at Elbit Systems' ISTAR Division, comment- ed on the trials: "The success of this test demonstrates Seagull's modular mission system capability, enabling a highly effective anti-submarine warfare configuration of high-perfor- mance dipping sonar using two sin- gle-tube torpedoes. The test highlight- ed Seagull's unique ability to detect and engage submarines, in addition to its ability to detect and destroy sea mines—all us- ing the same multimission USV system in modular configurations. This new and important capabil- ity has, to date, only been available to navies through manned vehicles." Incorporating Elbit Sys- tems' extensive experience in UAS, Seagull features a robust, highly autonomous and safe sailing capability, as well as modular mission payload suites, selected to match a variety of required missions including EW, surface force protection and hydrographical missions, in addition to the core mine countermeasure (MCM) and ASW missions. The sailing suite includes a patented autonomous navigation sys- tem (ANS) with obstacle avoidance, which considers the international regulations for preventing collisions at sea. The Seagull multimission USV system offers navies a true force-multiplier in reducing risk, cost and manpower requirements in performing missions that have only been performed to date by costly manned assets. USV system for maritime warfare missions. Drawing on world- class know-how derived from generations of Elbit's unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) design, de- velopment and operation and its naval capabilities, this organic, modular, highly autonomous sys- tem is a 12-m USV with replace- able mission modules, with two vessels capable of being oper- ated and controlled in concert using a single mission control system (MCS) from manned ships or from the shore. In its full configuration the advanced USV system delivers un- manned end-to-end mine- hunting operation capabil- ity, taking the man out of the minefield. It features inher- ent C4I capabilities for en- hanced situation awareness and has a large fuel capac- ity that allows it to remain at sea for several days. It also provides mission planning and online operation in known and unknown areas, including area survey, search, (Top) Seagull sonar imagery of shipwrecks using the L3-5900. (Bottom) The Seagull launches a torpedo during trials. (Photo Credit: Galina Kantor)

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