Modelling the operational effects of deploying and retrieving a fleet of uninhabited vehicles on the design of dedicated naval surface ships

Uninhabited vehicles (UXVs) are becoming an important component of naval warfare, providing an entirely new capability. By projecting military power in a more affordable way, through the use of UXVs, exposure of human life to military threats should be significantly reduced. While several navies are employing UXVs for a variety of applications, the concept of operating a fleet of such vehicles from a mothership that supports their overall operations during a mission, is a further challenge. This paper describes the research conducted by University College London (UCL) Design Research Centre (DRC) to develop and demonstrate a relevant analytical approach to design a mothership supporting a fleet of UXVs. This research should provide ship designers with the basis for early stage assessment of the impact of the various facilities seen as appropriate to host and support a substantial fleet of UXVs. It is particularly focused on the Launch and Recovery (LAR) capability of the UXV mothership. The research explored various options to demonstrate the proposed approach, rather than producing a definitive mothership design solution. This was appropriate given the fact that any UXV fleet composition is hard to predict (since mission related) and UXV technology is rapidly developing, so both must be speculative. It was found that the QT tool could provide meaningful investigation into the impact of potential tasks to be undertaken by a fleet of UXVs, addressing the design of mission bays, which were shown to be key to USV mothership design. While more focused simulations could refine subsystem options, this was not pursued, given the technology is still developing. Consequently, at this very early stage of investigating the deployment of a fleet of USVs from surface ships (through case studies), queuing network theory was seen to be more appropriate than a simulation-based analysis for this initial exploratory and investigatory work on future naval deployment of UXVs. •Uninhabited Vehicles (UXVs)•Launch and Recovery of Uninhabited Vehicles•Operational Analysis•UXV mothership design