Jay Clemens
BAE Systems has demonstrated the company’s unmanned boat technology in conjunction with a transportable command-and-control system at a U.K. navy-hosted exercise off the coasts of Scotland and West Wales.
The Unmanned Warrior event will run through Oct. 20 and feature more than 50 vehicles, sensors and cross-platform technologies from industry, academia and the Royal Navy, BAE said Thursday.
At the center of the exercise is the Autonomous Control Exploitation and Realization system jointly developed by BAE, QinetiQ, Thales and Seebyte to help integrate unmanned systems and platforms.
The ACER system is designed to monitor and intercept threats through its end-to-end command and control and unmanned boat technology.
Frank Cotton, head of technology for BAE’s combat systems business, said the technology serves a tool to coordinate the demonstration and guide the Royal Navy’s future capability planning.
Royal Navy personnel will use the system to transmit commands to unmanned vehicles such as BAE Systems’ Pacific Class 950 Unmanned Rigid Inflatable Boat.
P950 RIB is built to operate autonomously or remotely and designed to travel at a speed of 47 kts for as long as 12 hours.
BAE developed the boat with the help of autonomous marine vehicle producer ASV and technology suppliers such as Deep Vision and Chess Dynamics.
