The head of the Turkish Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB), Ismail Demir, has presented one of the latest projects designated “Swarm Intelligence Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV)” in the scope of a naval exercise. The contract for the project was awarded to Aselsan several years ago with the objective of developing different swarm architectures for different mission scenarios. The new ALBATROS USV -S has been developed by Aselsan in co-operation with several subcontractors.
According to Demir, the project has fully met the expectations in terms of creating swarm intelligence in homogeneously and heterogeneously distributed architectures. Within the project, a dedicated tactical communication environment for the sea domain was created. While the first phase of the project has been completed, activities will continue in the second phase, in the scope of which various tasks and formations for specific missions will be generated with AI support.
At present, the swarm consists of four identical USVs that have completed missions of varying degrees of difficulty to overcome obstacles with new control system capabilities, as well as a multi-communication system architecture (LOS and NLOS) and GNSS in hostile environments. At present, the swarms are primarily intended to provide coastal security, but as the project progresses, they will also perform tasks such as surveillance and, if required, electronic warfare. It is expected that the number of swarm USVs will increase to several dozen units with different payloads.
The ALBATROS-S USV is 7m long and has a top speed of slightly above 40 knots covering a range of 200 nautical miles, remaining operational up to sea state 4.
Korhan Özkilinc
