Liquid Robotics WaveGlider pitched at ADF

Washington DC-based Liquid Robotics displayed its WaveGlider SV3 Block II Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) at Indo Pacific in an attempt to interest the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), but appears to have lost the initiative to Ocius Technologies’ Bluebottle family of USVs.

The autonomous WaveGlider uses a semi-submerged 3.05m surface float with a low-observable mast for sensors and navigation lights, if required, with a 2.2m submarine section employing 6 pairs of ‘wings’ whose movement through the water both powers the system and propels it. The two are linked by an umbilical consisting of a 1-inch rubberised strip carrying communication and power feeds, which can be 8-12m long.

Liquid Robotics, which was acquired by Boeing in 2016, sees the WaveGlider SV3 as both an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and a Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) asset. In the ASW role a WaveGlider can mount or tow an acoustic sensing system such as a towed sonar array while, in the MDA role, it can mount a range of above and below-surface sensors.

It uses solar panels mounted in the surface float and can communicate by WiFi, cellular phone, or by satellite using Iridium and Starlink feeds.