Liquid Robotics and Boeing demonstrate SHARCs’ at Unmanned Warrior exercise

Liquid Robotics and Boeing have successfully demonstrated the capabilities of four sensor hosting autonomous remote crafts (SHARCs) at the Unmanned Warrior exercise, an event organised by the UK Royal Navy.

The exercise, which is being held off the coasts of Scotland and West Wales, aims to promote the latest technologies developed by the country's defence companies.

The network of unmanned surface vehicles (USV) uses advanced Boeing acoustic sensors to successfully detect, track and report a submarine during a live anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission.

During the two-week demonstration, the SHARCs detected and tracked an advancing unmanned underwater vehicle and a manned diesel submarine.

The SHARCs provided the commanders with 100 automated contact reports consisting of detailed and actionable intelligence information.

Boeing Defence, Space and Security autonomous systems vice-president Kory Mathews said: "The Boeing and Liquid Robotics team are redefining the state of the art for autonomous maritime warfare.

"Our work during Unmanned Warrior demonstrates without a doubt the practicality of using autonomous systems to provide real-time actionable intelligence to our warfighters."

Additionally, two SHARCs equipped with meteorological and oceanographic sensors operated in harsh meteorological conditions at the North Atlantic to autonomously provide real-time data on the weather and ocean conditions.

Liquid Robotics president and CEO Gary Gysin said: “Together, Liquid Robotics and Boeing achieved a groundbreaking milestone in unmanned maritime warfare.

“We proved that SHARCs can augment the tedious and dangerous task of continuous maritime surveillance by our warfighters and provide critical real-time intelligence to commanders.”

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Image: Liquid Robotics and Boeing demonstrate USV capabilities at Unmanned Warrior exercise. Photo: courtesy of Liquid Robotics.