Stealth UUV Mine-Hunter Unveiled

Posted 27 Mar 2006 at 17:19 UTC by steve

BAE Systems has unveiled an autonomous underwater stealth robot named Talisman. The robot is an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) designed to be launched from a miltary vessel on long distance missions. It can travel many kilometers in search of minefields and when it finds them, it doesn't just report their location, it destroys them using mini-torpedos. The robot can dive to 300 meters and has a top speed of 5 knots (9Km/h). It can avoid detection thanks to angular, carbon fiber panels - which make it look a bit like a stealth aircraft. Photos and video of Talisman can be found in a recent Nature article and Defence.com article.

Stealth except for the big fan stuck out the sides, posted 27 Mar 2006 at 20:40 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

First off, that last nature video of the sub blubbering on the top of the water really was a waste of time. Thanks BAE for such a boring video!

The Talisman looked like it was supposed to be stealthy but then it has these huge radar bouncing fans stuck out the sides of the thing. Shouldn't they have hidden those things inside where radar would not be hitting them?

Anyway, it's cool. I just got to notice a few things ya know.

stealth, posted 27 Mar 2006 at 20:59 UTC by steve » (Master)

I was wondering about that too. I'd think sonar would be a bigger issue than radar. But in that case, you'd want some form of ultra quiet propulsion. Wouldn't you be able to hear the props and motors coming from quite a distance? It should be swimming like a fish or something. Maybe they just meant it was stealthy with respect to the mines. Maybe it isn't magentic or massive or whatever triggers a mine these days?