Artificial intelligence technology, originally developed to track whales, will be installed on Royal Navy underwater drones to protect British waters from marine threats. The sensor technology has been tested and has proven itself well. This is reported by The Times, writes UNN.
Details
In the depths of the media library of the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom are magnetic tapes containing acoustic signatures of enemy ships and submarines. The secret materials were collected by "submarine hunters" of the Royal Navy or sonar specialists who worked underwater for the past 56 years, hoping that their work would be useful in the face of a potentially dangerous threat.
Now, thanks to significant advances in technology, the data they have collected will be entered into a system that will effectively "illuminate" the oceans and make it easier to hunt Russian submarines. Autonomous mini-submarine hunters, which can stay underwater for months, will use artificial intelligence to detect and identify disturbing sounds as part of the new Lura system developed by the European defense company Helsing.
Lura can distinguish between two ships of the same class due to slight differences in the acoustic signature of each ship.
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The system creates a "constellation" of underwater sensors, equivalent to satellites in the sky, and processes acoustic data. This eliminates the need for people to overcome noise and helps speed up response times so that defenses can be deployed to protect the shores of Great Britain.
The vast number of underwater gliders — or drones — with built-in sensors will allow the Royal Navy to patrol the sea and determine when a Russian boat is heading to Britain or hiding near underwater cables that are vital for international communications.
For example, gliders can be placed across the gap between North-West Wales (GIUK), a strategically important gateway between Northern European waters and the rest of the Atlantic.
Lura detects potential threats so our fleets can deter. We must use new technologies to keep pace with threats to our critical infrastructure, national waters and way of life. Deploying artificial intelligence on the edge of underwater constellations will illuminate the oceans and deter adversaries.
Helsing developed the system after receiving a contract from the Royal Navy to research the use of artificial intelligence for acoustic sensing. And hopes that its product will eventually be deployed throughout the service. Russian ships have been recorded in British waters 40 times since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It took sailors years to learn how to detect and identify sounds underwater. It takes them at least five years to become Jonesy from the movie "The Hunt for Red October." Lura can do this from day one, and every day, and the longer it is used, the better it will work
She added that the system was designed for use on SG-1 Fathom underwater gliders. Helsing's partner, Blue Ocean, originally developed marine drones to track whale migration and underwater environmental conditions.
They are ideal for hunting submarines because they have no propeller and glide through the water
Nile Cartwright, a leading technology expert at Helsing, said that hundreds of gliders could be deployed in the ocean "just to listen."
When they hear something, a Russian submarine or something showing unusual activity, they report it. One such device cannot do much on its own. But the point is that they are so cheap and simple that you can launch hundreds or thousands of such devices into the water. So the enemy will think twice before entering foreign waters with destructive intentions.
The system will automatically identify differences between submarines, tankers, passenger ships and representatives of Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers used to evade sanctions.
Military leaders are increasingly concerned that underwater cables carrying vital communications could be at risk after cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged or severed several times in a row.
In November, Defense Secretary John Healey took the rare step of allowing an Astute-class attack submarine to surface near the Russian intelligence ship Yantar off the coast of Britain. He accused the Kremlin of spying on the location of cables connecting Britain to the rest of the world.
Recall
The leader of the Russian spy network in Britain, Orlin Russev, was sentenced to almost 11 years in prison. According to the prosecutor's office, the organization he headed carried out surveillance in the interests of the Kremlin.