Russia to Develop Unmanned Ships

29.06.2012 Unmanned ships will be developed by joint enterprise comprising United Shipbuilding Corporation and Tranzas company, said Yevgeny Komrakov, director of the joint enterprise.

"We plan to offer this initiative to Russian Navy", said Komrakov at the international engineering technology forum taking place in Zhukovsky, Moscow region, reports Interfax.

He noted that nobody in Russia was working on that subject at the time.

"In 80's, Almaz Design Bureau used to work on the unmanned vessels. They were developing two projects; the first was a target ship which imitated destroyer and could move like destroyer, be seen on radar displays like destroyer and use destroyer's weapons. The second project was unmanned minesweeper. However, both projects were shut down then", Komrakov said.

According to him, other countries use unmanned ships for patrolling, anti-piracy and counter-terror purposes. "An operator sits several miles away from a ship and controls radar, infrared camera, loudspeaker communication, searchlight, armament, so all ship-based systems, being home and dry. By the way, one operator can control several ships at once", explained Komrakov.

He pointed out that unmanned ships are being actively used by Singaporean Navy. They purchase such vessels from Israel.

"Unmanned ships are a global development trend today. They are produced in the US, Israel, and some European countries", Komrakov said.

As for him, such ships are normally small, about 7-20 meters long. Their construction needs relatively short period of time, somewhat one or two years.

According to Komrakov, unmanned ships could be primarily interesting for coast guard, defense ministry, and other security agencies.