Our Military Unmanned Surface Vehicle Navigating the Sea [Yang Nak-gyu's Defence photo]

The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) announced that it demonstrated swarm unmanned surface vessel (USV) operation technology developed to counter enemy maritime infiltration in the waters off the Naval Academy in Jinhae, Gyeongnam. The demonstration scenario involved 10 USVs conducting maritime surveillance and reconnaissance, followed by a defensive battle against a surprise infiltration by 5 enemy manned surface vessels. The USVs autonomously planned their mission and navigated for about 40 minutes, ultimately winning the battle against the simulated enemy ships.

The swarm USV operation technology is being developed for surveillance, reconnaissance, and enemy assault response in border maritime areas such as the Northwest Islands. The project began in December 2019, with a total investment of 18.9 billion KRW planned through November this year. Each USV measures 6.5 meters in length, 2 meters in width, and has a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h). They are equipped with long-range target detection radar, electro-optical (EO) devices that recognize targets using artificial intelligence (AI), and LiDAR to identify nearby obstacles and prevent collisions between USVs. The USVs fuse information collected through AI to infer enemy intentions and understand the battlefield situation. Based on this, they assign missions, designate and pursue targets, and issue firing commands. Actual firing is carried out only after human confirmation.