Captain Drew Graham (Director of Naval Requirements) recently did a Speakers Event for the Naval Association of Canada and had some interesting information to put forward to the public regarding unmanned and modular payloads for AOPS. All of the information and photos below are taken from his slideshow, that I will link at the bottom for anybody interested.
Slideshow image provided for a general idea of this below mentioned system, not photos of the system itself as far as I know.
Containerized On Board Reelable Array (COBRA)
- Designed for the AOPS.
- Active/Passive deployable sonar array.
- Receiver to take on information from sonar buoys.
- COBRA will head to the Defence Capabilities Board in March, 2025 to push it into the next developmental phase.
- Able to connect with AOPS operations room and feed data into it.
AOPS UAS, effectively a UAS program exclusively for AOPS.
- Primary use for ISR and ice spotting, software included for gauging ice thickness and makeup.
- Procuring up to 12 of these aircraft.
- Smaller and shorter ranged than ISTAR.
- 2025 to 2027 introduction timeline.
UEA (Underwater Environmental Awareness)
- Large underwater uncrewed vehicle, effectively a submarine with its own deployable towed array sonar.
- Will deploy RDFAS (Rapidly Deployable Forward Deployed Anonymous Sensors) to act as a sensor net in an area, largely to detect submarines and surface vessels.
- Able to be deployed from vessels like AOPS using containers as storage.
- Primarily designed for long duration (up to 30+ days) Arctic patrol missions.
- Secondary goals of route surveys, providing modern navigation data in remote areas.
- Funded currently, with an introduction timeline of 2031 to 2035.