Vityaz-D Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

For other systems and ships titled Vityaz see:, see Vityaz.

Vityaz-D Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

History
Russian NavyRussia
Name	Vityaz-D ANPA/AUV
Ordered	2
Builder	Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering
Sponsored by	Fond Perspektivnyh Issledovaniy (FPI)
Completed	2019
In service	2020
Homeport	Vladivostok
Identification	Vityaz-D
Status	Active
Notes	Mother Ship: Rescue Tug Fotiy Krylov
General characteristics
Type	AUV or UUV
Tonnage	5.7 tons
Length	5.7 m (19 ft)
Beam	1.4 m (4.6 ft)
Installed power	Batteries
Propulsion	Four electric propulsors and ten small electric maneuvering thrusters
Speed	1 meter/second
Endurance	24 hours
Test depth	12,000 m (39,000 ft)
Complement	0
Sensors and processing systems	Side-scan sonar; echo sounders; search sonar; video cameras
Notes	System consists of an unmanned autonomous deep submersible (ANPA SGP Vityaz-D); a deep sea bottom station (GDS SN) and a shipboard communications and control suite on the mother ship.

The Vityaz-D is the world's first full-ocean depth, fully autonomous deep submergence vehicle to become operational.

This Russian Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) was designed and developed by the venerable Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering in St. Petersburg, Russia under contract to the Advanced Research Foundation (Russian acronym: FPI, Fond Perspektivnyh Issledovaniy). The development of Vityaz-D began in September 2017. The keel-laying ceremony of the AUV was held at Rubin's assembly plant for experimental production in November 2018.

It was tested in May 2020 with autonomous dives to 2400 meters in the Sea of Japan, to 5200 meters in the Philippine Sea, and culminating with a 10,028 meter dive into the Mariana Trench (note that the greatest depth of the Mariana Trench is 10,925 meters -- about 900 meters deeper than this Vityaz-D dive on 8 May 2020).

Russia revealed the Vityaz-D program at the Army-2020 International Military and Technical Forum held in Kubinka, outside Moscow in July 2020. The Vityaz-D autonomous underwater vehicle was named in honor of the R/V Vityaz, which for nearly 20 years was the flagship of the Soviet scientific research fleet.

History

The Russians have been aggressively pursuing autonomous submergence vehicle development for at least the last 20 years.

In addition to the "12,000 meter" Vityaz-D (meaning HERO in Russian), the Rubin Design Bureau, research and development (R&D) fabrication line, between 2009-2015 developed and produced a prototype Klavesin-2R-PM, (Harpsicord-2R-PM in Russian), a 3.7 ton AUV/UUV intended for search operations to 6,000 meters and with a range of 50 kilometers. In late 2016, the Klavesin-2R-PM was tested at the Krylov State Research Center`s experimental tank "to confirm its meeting the operational requirements and to define the vehicle`s navigability"

The Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering (TsKB MT) (as part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) is also involve with the Yunona (Juno in Russian) UUV program, designed for autonomous search operations to 1,000 meters depth. The Yunona is now "being prepared to undertake deep-water and state trials".

Mariana Trench

The Vityaz-D reached a depth of 10,028 meters on 8 May 2020, spending over three hours studying the Mariana Trench. Its mother ship was the rescue tug Fotiy Krylov.

During Pacific tests, the Vityaz-D's unique system of long-range audio-visual communication was tested. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the Vityaz-D laid a flag at the bottom to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the “Victory in the Great Patriotic War”.

Communications with the Vityaz-D was by means of a unique "sound-guided communication, which has no foreign analogues" -- apparently automatically directing communication bursts along a selected acoustic-ray path -- a technology not found in unclassified Western sources. Communications with the AUV were continuous and successful during the 10,028 meter depth mission. The underwater acoustic communication link between the mother ship and the Vityaz-D involved both sonic and ultrasonic channels. This new system (name undisclosed) allows transmission of both text and low quality images, as well as updating command and control instructions.

"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 -- i.e. the Fond Perspektivnyh Issledovaniy (FPI). “This is the first of the experiments planned under the Vityaz project," Grigoryev continued, "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 design solutions chosen by the developers, and also demonstrated effective and fruitful cooperation of project participants."

Impact

Vityaz-D is equipped with echo sounders, sonar navigation and communications equipment, side-scan sonars, has external video cameras, lighting equipment and oceanographic research equipment. This allows Vityaz-D to conduct search and bathymetric surveys of an area, sampling the bottom topography, and recording hydrophysical parameters of the marine environment.

The system relies on very fast and sophisticated artificial intelligence programs, flexible enough to respond to unanticipated events and difficulties during a deep dive mission. Communications between the AUV, the Deep-sea Bottom Station, and the support ship are by acoustic signals -- involving no cabling.

The Director General of Rubin's Central Design Bureau, Igor Vilnit, described the system's operations in an interview on 10 June 2020. "First, the operator keys in a task to perform a specific mission. After submersion the vehicle begins independent operation. The data it gathers is transmitted to the operator’s control board via a hydroacoustic channel."

Georgy Vinogradov, a senior researcher at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a participant in diving the MIR deep-submergence vehicles , stated: "I believe that the use of this technology will open up many new opportunities for scientific research. Underwater vehicles are now an obvious trend in ocean exploration. Of course, manned underwater vehicles provide very valuable information. But unmanned devices are certainly safer, especially at such incredible depths. They are usually controlled via a fiber-optic cable, that is, the device is “tied” to the carrier ship or underwater base. Vityaz-D works without the optic-fiber cable. It is controlled via a hydroacoustic channel, that is, an underwater "speakerphone". The device is completely autonomous. Each of the ways of penetrating into the depth - with the help of manned, remotely operated and unmanned vehicles - has its own strengths and weaknesses. On one of these paths, a big step has just been taken forward."

The editors of GlobalSecurity.org perhaps noted the significance of this development most succinctly: "Once UAVs came to be regarded as reusable aircraft rather than expendable [aerial] munitions, there was a quantum leap in the size of the vehicles and the purposes to which they were put. Now such a revolutionary phase transition is underway underwater. In both cases, the foundation was the inexorable unfolding of the gift that keeps on giving, the miracle of Moore's Law. Computers onboard the vehicles could take on greater responsibility for more complex tasks..."

"Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUV] can communicate for some considerable distances while submerged, via underwater acoustic communications. The challenge is the limited message size possible with this channel - text, of course, video, of course not."

"For Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, the secret ingredient was the advent of onboard computers that could act in response to human guidance provided by the rather meager channel of underwater acoustic communications. At first, underwater vehicles required onboard human presence, but over time this guidance could be provided remotely via a cable tether. Now the tether has been severed, as the computers onboard the vehicle can execute complex tasks in response to simple directions. [I]t is no longer necessary to have a cable connection, [now] processors onboard the vehicle can provide sonar target classification and location in brief messages relayed through underwater acoustic communications channels."

Future

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov described the Vityaz-D as an outstanding achievement by Russia's science and the defense industry, and stated that “such projects will give rise to a new elite R&D complex.” Borisov continued with the expectation that Vityaz-D would be used to study the underwater shelf and develop subsea oil-and-gas fields.

And, the FPI intends to build on this novel system, a new advanced version (as yet unnamed), which will be larger and equipped with manipulators. The successor system will have enhanced external lighting and the number of video cameras onboard will be increased.

Finally, "The Russian Navy plans to replace its fleet of unmanned deep-sea submersibles with the Vityaz-D drone for its military operations."