*Spearuav released the ninox 103 UW sub to air encapsulated autonomous four rotor aircraft. The company says it is the first prowling UAV that can be launched from submarines and other underwater platforms *, and it can immediately obtain situation awareness beyond visual range.
Although submarines have significant strategic and tactical advantages by virtue of their ability to dive into the water, from the beginning, they also suffered from the disadvantage of being unable to see what happened on the waves beyond the horizon of the periscope. For this reason, divers have tried many ways to expand their horizons for more than a century. With varying degrees of success, kites, gyroscopes and even aircraft have been launched from submarines, but all of these have a drawback that submarines need to surface before they can be deployed.
In recent years, the navies of various countries have turned their attention to the UAV that can be launched underwater as a reconnaissance platform. However, these are often fixed wing aircraft, while the design adopted by the ninox 103 is based on a four rotor aircraft, which gives it the ability to hover in place.
According to spearuav, ninox 103 is stored in a capsule and can be deployed from a submarine. The capsule can float on the water and remain dormant for up to 24 hours before the launch of the rugged marine UAV.
Once lifted off, the range of the ninox 103 can reach 10 kilometers and the endurance time is 45 minutes. With a payload of 1kg, the UAV has low acoustic, thermal and visual characteristics. In addition, it is equipped with photoelectric / infrared (eo/ir) sensors for reconnaissance and automatic target acquisition using its open architecture AI system. Communications with submarines, other platforms, or shore based special forces teams use encrypted communications, third-party data integration, and cross domain connections.
Colonel Gadi Kuperman, the founder and CEO of spearuav, said: "as the first such technology development project in the world, the development of ninox 103 sub to air is to meet the needs of Spear's global customers for UAVs that can be launched underwater. The system has been successfully tested, and spear is cooperating with some defense companies to continue new development."