USV, UUV and UAV. How unmanned revolutions at sea

Unmanned marine systems have ceased to be a curiosity that has been viewed from a distance until recently. The recent years in this war in Ukraine have proved to us one thing – they have become one of the most important tools of modern fleets, especially in high-risk waters.

Introduction: From scepticism to necessity

Sea drones have become a topic that goes far beyond the narrow community of specialists. That is why I have taken the liberty of making a text that illustrates their meaning and action in a way that is understandable to those who do not deal with the subject of the sea every day. Many of my Readers ask what the sea drones are, how they work and why they create so many emotions in the Navy. The answer is not simple, because we are touching an area that was still recently considered to be sidelined, and today it is shaping the way in which operations are carried out in high-risk waters.

The marine environment – not only in Poland – has always carefully looked at unmanned technologies. It's hard to blame them.Warship for hundreds of yearshe associated with a crew that knows every screw and mechanism, and decisions have always been made on the Captain's Bridge, not in a remote operating center. However, modern activities at sea no longer resemble the space we know from textbooks.

Drones become one of the pillars of maritime activities, as the nature of threats has changed. The Black Sea is the best example – today the most dynamic theatre of warfare using unmanned systems in the world. Ukraine has shown that small USVs can make losses to the nuclear fleet, and that action at sea, which has seemed predictable over the years, has been completely revised.

If someone assumes that the Baltic will remain out of the way, they may be disappointed. It is already today a sea sensitive to critical infrastructure and increasing exploratory activity. Many indicate that after the end of the war in Ukraine, the FR will attempt to rebuild its presence in the north. This is not a certainty, but a real scenario, which is increasingly discussed in the region. In this arrangement, the Baltic will face a dilemma well known from the Black Sea: either we will strengthen unmanned capabilities, or we will let the opponent impose the pace of events.

USV – unmanned water units that change the logic of the fight

The USV has still recently been seen as an addition to larger platforms, a kind of technical curiosity of limited importance. Today, their role looks completely different. Optielectronics, navigation radars, communication sets and hydrographic equipment are installed on such units. Battleheads and modules that interfere with the work of enemy sensors also appear more and more frequently.

Unmanned water units lead to infrastructure surveillance, control access tracks to ports, and monitor waters where alarming activity has been observed. They perform monotonous and multi-hour tasks that ship crews would avoid due to risk and mental burden.At the same time, constantbe a tool for marines to operate under conditions that have so far required the use of full-sized units. Western fleets began to treat USV not as a margin, but as equipment capable of taking over some of the classic patrol tasks and early surveillance. It's not a temporary fashion stunt. It's a paradigm shift that's just entering the acceleration phase.

UUV – underwater operating systems that remain invisible

In the hydrological environment of the Baltic, where the salinity and temperature layers form a complex system of acoustic reflections, UUV has gained a difficult to overestimate. Submarine ships must not be on several critical waters at the same time, but UUV is.

Autonomous submarines use side sonars and hydrological sensor kits, so they can map the bottom, detect mine-like objects, explore port approaches and observe the infrastructure hidden beneath the surface. The Baltic, on which cables and pipelines appear increasingly densely, forces the constant presence of such systems. In practice, this means that the area of Bornholm, Gotland and the depths of Gdańsk will become the space of permanent UUV patrols. Something that is still considered an "innovation" in a few years will be the basis of routine hydrographic and exploratory activity.

UAV in maritime activities – a look from above that the navy needed for a long time

UAVs are the most widespread category of unmanned workers, but have been of limited importance in the marine environment for years. The problem was storms, limited space on ships, and no solutions allowing safe operation from the deck. However, the last few years have brought a major breakthrough.

Unpiloted aircraft provide rapid recognition, verification of radar tracks and surveillance of waterways. They facilitate rescue operations, support boarding groups and allow ship commanders to get an immediate picture of the situation beyond the horizon.

More and more Navys are starting to treat UAV as a permanent piece of equipment. A good example isconceptVanguard– a new modular model of the ship developed by Norwegian Kongsberg, which from the beginning assumes full integration of unmanned platforms with the mother ship. This shows that drones are not an addition, but a natural extension of the ship's senses.

Integration of unmanned systems – ship's senses transferred far from the hull

A modern ship that can use USV, UUV and UAV ceases to be a combat unit only. It becomes an information node managing a multilayer sensor network. The drones take on the role of advanced observers, and the ship's task becomes to combine data into a coherent situational picture.

The condition is appropriate facilities: Mission space adapted to support platforms, maintenance stations and communication systems capable of continuously exchanging data. The ship must also use a combat system that does not treat unmanned workers as alien additives but as integral elements of combat architecture. That's why in the conceptVanguardThe drone hangar is not symbolic. It is a design standard that meets the actual requirements of modern theatre activities.

Baltic – the sea calm only in theory

In the Baltic, threats have been known for a long time. Energy infrastructure, transmission cables and intensive exploratory activity form a mixture that requires constant supervision. This is due to the disruption of AIS and GPS systems, which have become everyday in the area of Russian activities. Polish Navy The Polish Republic is taking steps to secure key areas, as we have described more broadly in the analysis of critical infrastructure protection.

But this is the beginning of this process. I suppose the Baltic after the end of the war in Ukraine will not return to the former status quo. Russia will want to regain its influence, which will translate into greater underwater and water activity. Unmanned systems will become one of the basic tools of pressure, as in the Black Sea. The discussion of the need for sea drones cannot therefore be limited to simple patterns. It is not about whether they are needed, but about how quickly and in what extent they need to be implemented in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of those countries that have ignored the technological breakthrough and paid a high price for it.

Challenges – technology requires doctrine

The greatest limitations concern not the equipment, but the way it is used. Difficulties arise in maintaining stable communication in conditions of interference, when operating in a variable weather environment and when creating a command system capable of receiving large volumes of data from multiple platforms simultaneously.

Drones without proper doctrine will remain an expensive, impressive gadget. Only a coherent operating architecture in which UUV, USV and UAV form one information chain gives a real operational advantage.

There's another theme that's rarely spoken of. Unmanned technology develops faster than the law that should order it. Sea drones do not operate in vacuum – they are subject to general conventions on maritime safety and environmental protection – but there are no rules that clearly define the status of unmanned marine vessels, define the responsibility for their operation and the extent to which they can be used in crisis situations.

This applies to both civil navigation and military applications. In practice, this means that officers, lawyers and engineers must rely onown interpretation of the rules, not on clearly recorded regulations. The sooner we decide how to integrate sea drones into the existing legal order, the less the risk that only the first loud incident in the Baltic will determine the limits of their acceptability.

Conclusions – the sea enters an unmanned era

In the end, I'll write straight, without beating around the bush. Unmanned marine systems have entered the game for good – it is not a promise of the future, but a real tool present at sea right now. The Baltic will only accelerate this process, because the pressure on security will increase from year to year, which each of us has heard more about than we would like.

USV, UUV and UAV will not replace ships. I calm my colleagues in the Navy, who like to jump to conclusions — No one here announces the end of the manned age. Ships will remain the foundation of the naval forces, as emergency decisions require experience and responsibility that no autonomous platform will take over.

However, it is worth noting that drones create a new architecture of action. The ship becomes a node that manages a network of sensors operating in the air, on the surface and underwater. This network will become denser and resistant to interference.

The Navy environment may or may not like it, but the direction of change is clear. The future of maritime activities belongs to systems that work where the risk to the crew would be too high or where the crew vessel would simply not arrive. In this sense, unmanned workers do not take away the role of seafarers — They open up new opportunities for them.