The fully autonomous unmanned mini-sub, called Talisman, can be re-programmed mid-mission by satellite from thousands of miles away and features composite carbon-fibre hull giving it a stealth-like profile and very low observability. The stealthy hull design was based on developments made at the BAE Systems' aircraft manufacturing facility in Samlesbury, north-west England, which is home to the UK production work on the F-35 JSF and Typhoon programmes. Talisman can carry a wide variety of payloads, from image capture through environmental sensors to mine counter measures.
baesystems.comBAE SYSTEMS LEADS WITH TALISMAN AT UNDERSEA DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY EUROPETalisman, a next-generation autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), will spearhead the Company?s presence at Undersea Defence Technology in Hamburg, Germany, from 27-29 June 2006.
BAE SYSTEMS? TALISMAN ?INTELLIGENT? MINI-SUB PULLS THROUGH AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY
Farnborough, England. - A new kind of mini-sub that can roam close to the world?s shorelines without the need for a crew and with little risk of detection, has been created by engineers working at BAE Systems in the UK.
The Talisman, UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle), builds on recently unveiled ?black? unmanned air vehicle (UAV) programmes developed by BAE Systems engineers in the Air Systems business. Talisman is on display at the Farnborough International Air Show, alongside one of the autonomous UAVs from which it pulls through aerospace technology.
The fully autonomous unmanned mini-sub, called Talisman, can be re-programmed mid-mission by satellite from thousands of miles away and features a state-of-the-art composite carbon-fibre hull giving it a stealth-like profile and very low observability. The stealthy hull design was based on developments made at the BAE Systems? aircraft manufacturing facility in Samlesbury, north-west England, which is home to the UK production work on the F-35 JSF and Typhoon programmes. Talisman can carry a wide variety of payloads, from image capture through environmental sensors to mine counter measures.
Engineers from across BAE Systems joined forces to create Talisman, completing the concept demonstrator project in just nine months compared with a typical development cycle which is measured in years rather than months.
Talisman was launched earlier this year and has already generated significant interest in the military, civil and commercial sectors. Several successful trials have already taken place in the Irish Sea near Barrow, north-west England, with a 100-per-cent success rate.
Ian Muldowney, BAE Systems? Air Systems Programme Manager for Talisman, said: ?Talisman is an excellent showcase of the new capabilities that can now be demonstrated by BAE Systems ? capabilities which build on sharing technology across the company?s business sectors and on rapid engineering techniques which mean fast-track cost-effective delivery for the customer.
?Engineers from throughout the military aircraft production business worked on this project in supporting the BAE Systems Underwater Systems group. They can be proud of what they have delivered. This is world-leading technology developed right here in the UK.?
This will be the first time that BAE Systems will be demonstrating Talisman in the international market since the system was launched at Oceanology International earlier this year. The Talisman System, designed, developed and manufactured by BAE Systems in the UK, is a latest-generation modular multi-role UUV, capable of a wide range of maritime littoral operations. It will be linked with Nautis, the latest generation Mine Countermeasures Command & Control System designed to combat the increasing threat posed by ever more sophisticated mines.
BAE Systems will be displaying the Submarine Command System Next Generation (SMCS NG) - the latest evolution of the highly successful SMCS which is now at sea in all the Royal Navy?s submarines. SMCS NG has now been successfully installed in six of the eleven submarines that are going to receive it.
SMCS NG transfers the applications proven on earlier variants of SMCS to a new open system architecture that uses COTS PCs to provide the computer processing with Windows as the software operating system. The design includes a new console and draws heavily on developments made by BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte) for the combat management systems for the Astute class submarine and the Type 45 destroyer. SMCS NG software is delivered in a single ?all-fits? release that configures itself for the combat system of each particular submarine.
BAE Systems will be giving two papers at the UDT exhibition: ?Open Systems Vs. Open Source in Defence Systems?, presented by Peter Hammond on Tuesday 27 June at 12.30. This paper will describe the issues in developing against an open source requirement for a recent MoD project, and how these challenges were overcome by using an Open System Architecture approach.
In an Open System Architecture the system is decomposed into small, well-defined units with clear interfaces. Each component fitting into the architecture may be a traditional closed-source product, or may be open source. Providing the interfaces are well designed, the customer has flexibility in replacing and reusing components, while militarily or commercially sensitive intellectual property is still protected. This paper will describe the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach, and explore what is required of an interface to be ?Open?
The second paper is ?Environmental Impact Assessment for the Royal Navy? presented by Ian Thomas on Wednesday 28 June at 2.00pm. Ian Thomas will give an overview of how this new approach to an environmental impact assessment is undertaken both in process and methodology, and how the work by key academics from the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) and Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM) extends current methodology. He also discuss how the software tool is being designed to meet the legislative and MoD Policy requirements as well as utilising current environmental and biological data.
Image caption: Talisman, the latest-generation autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), designed and built by BAE Systems.
