Underwater Drones of the Russian Navy

Vityaz became the world's first fully autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicle to reach the deepest point in the oceans. It is an integral part of the super-deep-sea diving complex, the development of which was launched in September 2017, when Russian shipbuilders began implementing an innovative project to create a mobile marine robotic complex, designed for scientific research in any part of the World Ocean.

The super-deep-sea diving complex is capable of operating at the extreme depths of the oceans. It received its name in honor of the research vessel Vityaz, which for nearly 20 years was the flagship of the expeditionary fleet of the USSR.

 The Vityaz complex includes an autonomous uninhabited apparatus, a deep-sea bottom station and control room equipment. The naval equipment of the complex provides information exchange of the carrier vessel with the underwater vehicle and the bottom station in real time via the sonar channel. The complex consists entirely of components of domestic production.

 Unlike the Kaiko and Nereus devices that previously worked in this area, the Vityaz device operates completely autonomously. Thanks to the use of artificial intelligence elements in the control system of the device, it can independently bypass obstacles along the course, find a way out of a limited space and solve other intellectual problems.

“The May 8 dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was the first step in a series of Vityaz experiments,” said Andrei Grigoryev, Director General of the Advanced Research Foundation.
“This is the first of the experiments planned under the Vityaz project. It was carried out jointly by Russian shipbuilders and scientific teams of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the support of the Pacific Fleet. The success of the experiment confirmed the fidelity of the design solutions chosen by the developers, and also demonstrated effective and fruitful cooperation within the framework of a wide cooperation of project participants, "said Andrei Grigoriev.

Immersion of the Vityaz submarine at the bottom of the Mariana Trench was carried out from the rescue tugboat Fotiy Krylov of the Pacific Fleet.
 The project to create a deep autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicle Vityaz-D (D - “demonstrator”) with an estimated diving depth of up to 12 thousand meters was first submitted by the Russian Advanced Research Foundation (FPI) in 2018, the project was implemented with the participation of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Technical implementation was provided by Central Design JSC

propaganda project

magnumcromagnon wrote:

Isos wrote:Is there any interesting achievement by doing so ? They better spend money on something usefull instead of peopaganda project.

This UUV is dual use buddy. It's part of the oceangraphic studies of the ocean floor which aids with the navigation of weapons like Poseidon and helps map for oil and mineral deposits.

magnumcromagnon wrote:

kvs wrote:
Controlling a robotic submersible 10 km below the ocean surface is not some trivial task.   Water is not exactly translucent to
EM waves.    

What do you think will be the preferred form of communication between this UUV and it's oceanographic mothership? Could it have been ELF communication, or a dipping sonar that emits a direct beam SASER (sonic equivalent of laser using phonons instead of photons) in the terahertz range, or perhaps both? It should be noted that the US Navy shutdown the last of it's ELF communication facilities back in 2004, which means their ability they could intercept ELF comms between motherships and their UUV's would be slim. I'm guessing the motherships could use ELF comms to track their UUV, a dipping sonar SASER to directly guide the UUV, and perhaps a backup seafloor bed inertial guidance integration in the drone.

Big_Gazza wrote:I should have thought the significance was apparent.  If Russia can build a fully autonomous UUV that can navigate to the bottom of the Marianas trench, drop a package, and return to Mothership then they are fully capable of building control systems capable of guiding a nuclear-powered unlimited-endurance Poseidon through the worlds deep oceans to deliver thermonuclear retribution to a major US coastal city.

It also makes me think that the estimates of Poseidons maximum operating depth might be a little short of the mark.  It won't be designed to cruise around the bottom of teh abyssal trenches but 1000-2000m sounds more than likely.  Cruising deep and slow would make detection almost impossible, and make interception a nightmare.