L3Harris recently demonstrated both unmanned and manned operation and integration of its autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) capabilities with international naval forces.
L3Harris operated Dstl’s MAST-13 ASV on behalf of the Royal Navy’s NavyX team and the Royal Marines 47 Commando as part of their Autonomous Advance Force (AAF) 2.5 trial in Norway.
MAST-13’s ‘ASView’ control system was integrated onto HMS Albion enabling the ASV to be controlled from a remote station on board the ship. The successful integration meant that MAST-13 could operate at range from its operator.
In a U.K first, MAST-13 was remotely piloted into HMS Albion’s dock demonstrating the ease of operating an ASV alongside a warship. The exercise was carefully planned, the team carried out 22 manned cycles of entering and retracting before handing control to the remote station to complete the task unmanned multiple times.
The vehicle’s remote operator had full situational awareness via the on-board sensor package enabling the vehicle to navigate safely.
MAST-13 completed several other taskings via the Maritime Autonomous Platform Exploitation (MAPLE) integrated command and control system. The tasks were all carried out in unmanned mode while sending feeds back to the remote station.
AAF 2.5 formed part of the broader “Exercise Cold Response”, in which British and Norwegian troops gathered to test their ability to work together in one of the most unforgiving environments on earth. The exercise consisted of more than 15,000 soldiers from the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden – as well as the Norwegian forces and temperatures rarely got above 0 degrees.
L3Harris designed and built MAST-13 for Dstl. The 13-meter (41-foot) long high-speed vehicle is a testbed for the Royal Navy to understand how to maintain a technical advantage over potential adversaries.
The brand new class of ASV was unveiled by L3Harris and Dstl at last year’s DSEI tradeshow in London.
About L3Harris Technologies
L3Harris Technologies is an agile global aerospace and defense technology innovator, delivering end-to-end solutions that meet customers’ mission-critical needs. The company provides advanced defense and commercial technologies across air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. L3Harris has approximately $18 billion in annual revenue and 48,000 employees, with customers in more than 100 countries. L3Harris.com.
