France is preparing to one day have underwater combat drones in its navy. A demonstrator will be built by Naval Group.
After airspace, drones are increasingly invading the seabed. France, with its immense maritime domain, intends to be one of them. Six months after launching studies on the use of underwater drones, the decision was made to build an unmanned underwater combat drone demonstrator.
The news was announced on January 30, 2024 by the Directorate General of Armaments, whose mission is to prepare France’s future defense systems. The machine, called in the jargon a UCUV (Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle), will be built by Naval Group, one of the shipbuilding giants in the world.
Own processing capacity and decision-making autonomy
The French UCUV will belong more precisely to the XL-UUV class, i.e. the category of large, unmanned underwater combat drones. It is specified in the DGA announcement that the machine will eventually reach 10 meters in length for an overall mass exceeding 10 tonnes.
This combat drone must display a “ long endurance “, to have available ” autonomous processing capabilities ”, thanks to the presence of sensors, and assume a certain “ decision-making autonomy “. Its possible armament is not mentioned. His military vocation, however, opens the possibility of granting him weapons.
Decision-making autonomy will be partial, with the aim of always having a human in the loop. The onboard brain of the drones will remain under the supervision of sailors to plan and carry out missions. In short, France must follow the doctrine already observed with aerial drones: the machines act under the eye and decision of an operator.
A new field of conflict: the bottom of the seas
This development reflects the desire of the powers to invest in a new environment, the seabed, already partly occupied by submarines. In recent years, the general staff and the government have insisted on the need to deploy in these new areas of conflict: cyber, space, information and the bottom of the oceans.
For states with access to the sea, this becomes a strategic issue, to protect the maritime approaches of a country, or secure the surroundings of a deployed naval force. These drones, small in size and designed to be very discreet, can also be used for offensive actions, or for intelligence and surveillance.
Naval Group, which has long equipped the French Navy, has been working on underwater drones since 2016, allowing it to already accumulate experience and expertise in this sector. Developments using own funds which should then materialize with the signing of contracts with the French army.
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