Former French Navy commander Aymeric Moullart de Torcy, now handling unmanned systems marketing at Naval Group, believes deploying fully autonomous underwater systems is crucial to gaining an advantage. This comes as Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which included a heavy use of aerial weaponry and artillery systems.
De Torcy emphasizes the importance of developing unmanned underwater vehicles independently of a data link, as well as the need for manned and unmanned assets to complement each other for high-end operations.
Naval Group recently won a contract to design an unmanned combat underwater vehicle for the French Navy and plans to produce a prototype within the next three years. The system will carry out intelligence-gathering missions above and below the surface and operate in contested environments.
De Torcy added that cheap assets may limit a complete understanding of the threat or the ability to meet all mission requirements. He also noted the obstacle of retrieving unmanned underwater vehicles after completing a mission, as well as challenges related to maturity of deployed technology.
