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lockheed martin pelican

in 2005, skunk works, a subsidiary of lockheed martin, began developing the pelican multi-purpose drone. this is a large, stealthy, jet-powered drone that can be released and recovered by a submarine. its reusability is a highlight. darpa and the u.s. navy later took the pelican project seriously and merged it with the ohio-class ssgn modification project. conceptually, the pelican would be launched from the ohio-class ssgn's flexible payload module to a maximum launch depth of 150 feet. the drone would then float on the water before rocket boosters ignited to launch the drone skyward. finally, the turbofan engine takes over the flight process of the drone. what’s interesting is that the inverted w-shaped wing of the pelican drone looks very much like a pelican’s wings, and its operation method is also very similar to the pelican’s takeoff and landing.

lockheed martin's patent for the cormorant drone, filed in 2006, included the ability to deliver precision-guided munitions from a belly bay, indicating that lockheed martin, darpa and the navy had been considering the drone for a strike role beyond just intelligence gathering. a lockheed martin briefing states that the cormorant drone can carry 1,000 pounds of payload in a modular belly compartment, including sensors and communication relay systems, and can even airdrop supplies to special forces deep in enemy territory. after completing its mission, the cormorant returned to the predetermined sea area to shut down the turbofan engine and deploy its parachute, landing safely in the water. the submarine then sent its own tethered remote control device to connect the cable to the drone and recover it. the status of the pelican's development is very mysterious, and lockheed martin did conduct many secret tests, including releasing the pelican from an underwater mock launch tube. according to lockheed martin's patent, the pelican can also be released from surface ships.

in 2008, darpa announced that it would abandon the pelican project, ostensibly due to budget cuts. it is unclear whether the development of the pelican project will continue after that, and it may have been transferred to another secret project. discussion of drones almost disappeared after darpa announced that it was abandoning the pelican project, even the skunk works, which had always been keen on the pelican.

but in 2009, lockheed martin applied for another patent for a water launch/recovery drone, using a head-mounted electric ducted fan to achieve autonomous operation in water and air. its shape is very similar to the soviet mig-1 in the early cold war. 15 fighter jets.

conventional deterrence and actual combat of ohio-class ssgn

on december 17, 2005, the ssgn ohio was put into service again. the florida and michigan were put into service on april 8 and november 22, 2006 respectively. the georgia was the last to be put into service on december 18, 2007. most official news reports on the four ssgns deal primarily with general announcements of deployment, return to homeport, port visits, and participation in exercises. over the years, the ohio-class ssgn has usually carried more than 100 tomahawk cruise missiles to sea, and focused on strike missions against time-sensitive targets, sharing a lot of combat pressure with the aegis ships in the aircraft carrier battle group that also carry tomahawk cruise missiles. the commander responsible for ohio-class ssgn operations has mentioned intelligence collection and special operations support missions, but those details are very mysterious.

in 2011, the florida participated in nato's attack on libya. the submarine fired 93 tomahawks during the operation, 90 of which accurately hit the target. the then commander of the navy's submarine force, john richardson, highly praised the uss florida's combat performance. he believed that with the endurance and concealment of cruise missile nuclear submarines, they could launch attacks on inland deep targets at any time, making opponents extremely frightened and unable to prevent them. the submarine's sensors the suite is capable of gathering critical information and intelligence in the field and relaying it back to commanders for rapid response, but john richardson shied away from any mention of supporting special forces operations and expanding multi-role combat capabilities.

during the 2017 north korean nuclear crisis, the uss michigan and the uss carl vinson aircraft carrier battle group held exercises in north korean waters. the then us president trump also revealed and emphasized this in a phone call with philippine president rodrigo duterte. the presence of two submarines in the area seems to be the anchoring stone for the americans. in early november 2019, the uss florida was deployed in the eastern mediterranean to counter russia's military buildup in syria and collected a large amount of valuable military intelligence. apart from these public deployments, the historical combat record of the ohio-class ssgn is rarely made public, and details about the upgrades and new technologies of these submarines are even scarcer.

in the late 2000s, the u.s. navy did integrate a signals intelligence collection system called radiant gemstone onto some los angeles-class attack submarines, which came along with the necessary data links and software backends to quickly exchange information with the national security agency , and can even exchange information across services or between allies. the confidentiality level of the information is divided into three levels: top secret/sensitive/general. this sounds a lot like the evolution of the data-sharing systems and operational concepts used by the georgia during the silent hammer experiment.

general dynamics’ universal launch and recovery module (ulrm)

the flexible payload module (fpm) evolved, at least in part, into the universal launch and recovery module (ulrm), a system described by general dynamics as being primarily used to launch and recover various types of uuvs, including the aforementioned seahorse, seaglider (underwater glider) and bluefin21 (bluefin tuna). bluefin21 gained worldwide fame after participating in the search for the wreckage of malaysia airlines flight 370 in 2014. the u.s. navy subsequently adopted the knifefish, a derivative of this uuv, mainly for mine hunting missions. the universal launch and recovery module accommodates compact folding racks that can launch and recover multiple relatively small uuvs simultaneously. general dynamics envisions the feasibility of deploying entire swarms of networked uuvs from nuclear submarines to perform surveillance missions over vast ocean areas. the system can also deploy other payloads, such as mines or decoy balloons.

while developing the ulrm, general dynamics is also developing a retrofitted mast with sensors that could potentially be used to deploy additional payloads such as drones and uuvs. these systems all exhibit strong "plug and play" characteristics and are very suitable for use in the ohio-class ssgn. in 2013, the u.s. navy stated that it would test a prototype ulrm on one of its ohio-class ssgns the following year. the goal at that time was to form combat capabilities by 2019, but there was no more definite news until 2024.

ufp and hydra independently developed by the defense advanced research projects agency

in 2013 the defense advanced research projects agency (darpa) itself launched a new program to explore the possibility of launching small drones from remotely controlled capsules possibly located on the seafloor, with the possibility of submarines deploying them covertly as well, a mission that seems very suitable for the operational concept of the ohio-class ssgn, the project is called upward falling payloads (ufp). ufp is also reminiscent of the broaching universal buoyant launcher (bubl) system from a decade ago, but it's unclear whether there is a direct relationship between the two projects.

darpa is also exploring a modular, standardized payload module that can be used with submarines/aircraft/surface ships called hydra. hydra can deploy drones or uuvs, and in some ways sounds similar to the stealth economy capsule system (sacs) used by the ssgn georgia in the silent hammer experiment. it's also unclear whether there is a direct relationship between the two efforts.

the ufp and hydra disappeared in 2017, possibly moving to other secretive programs, as did lockheed's cormorant submarine-launched drone.

in 2013, the u.s. navy successfully demonstrated the ability to launch an encapsulated drone from a submarine's torpedo tube. the los angeles-class attack nuclear submarine uss providence deployed the naval research laboratory's fuel cell unmanned aerial vehicle system and used an improved tomahawk missile launcher for launch tests.

more powerful ohio-class ssgn

it is likely that the ohio-class ssgn's multi-role combat capabilities have been greatly enhanced since the silent hammer test in 2004, although specific details are limited. even without the dazzling variety of universal launch and recovery modules mentioned above, the ohio-class ssgn has been using their modified trident missile launch tubes to deploy various unmanned systems or serve as flexible storage space.

the intelligence collection and fusion system possessed by the ohio-class ssgn was the most advanced before it was converted into an ssgn. for more than ten years, computer processing capabilities, data links, and communication systems have all been developing rapidly, and submarines have developed new ways to transmit/receive information. there are also constantly emerging, greatly expanding those already impressive combat power levels.

since at least 2013, the u.s. navy has been secretly working on a new revolutionary electronic warfare architecture called network emulation of multi-element signatures for integrated sensors (nemesis). the ohio-class ssgn provides an ideal platform for deploying and supporting this new electronic warfare architecture. with its continuous combat capabilities and high degree of concealment, the ohio-class ssgn can launch swarms of small electronic warfare drones deep into enemy land. these drones can project false naval fleet and air group signals on enemy sensors, deceive enemy defense systems, and serve as decoys to consume enemy air defense munitions, or detect and collect intelligence on enemy air defense systems in peacetime.

ohio-class ssgns can also integrate new conventional weapons to support their time-sensitive strike missions, and the u.s. navy is already working on some submarine-launched missiles, such as the standard-6 block ib ultra-long-range multi-role missile, a missile called sea dragon highly classified supersonic anti-ship missiles, as well as future next-generation strike weapons. the u.s. navy also test-launched a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle from the ohio-class ssgn under the conventional prompt strike program.

weapons with smaller volume and weight can greatly increase the ohio-class ssgn's bomb load and expand its mission capabilities. the european missile group's (mbda) spear3 mini cruise missile and its spear-ew variant (carrying electronic warfare payloads) are small a model of cruise missiles, they may become optional ammunition for the ohio-class ssgn, so that the bomb load of the ohio-class ssg can be greatly increased to more than 200.

successor of the ohio-class ssgn

unfortunately, the ohio-class ssgn will be retired one day. they are already the oldest existing ohio-class nuclear submarines, and they will be replaced by the latest virginia-class block iv attack nuclear submarines. the ohio-class ssgn provided a lot of valuable experience for the development of the virginia payload module (vpm).

the vpm has four large multi-purpose launch tubes that can accommodate a variety of modules, just like the modified trident missile launch tubes on the ohio-class ssgn, including seven tomahawk cruise missile launchers. existing virginia block iii and block iv submarines already have two similarly sized virginia payload tubes (vpt) installed in the nose. vpt has brought some of the multi-mission capabilities of the ohio-class ssgn to the virginia-class nuclear submarines, and the navy has set aside at least four virginia-class block ii and block iii early models for special operations support missions, with two more available if needed. as a backup submarine.

the six virginia-class ships - hawaii, mississippi, new hampshire, new mexico, north carolina and north dakota - can also carry the same type of dry deck shelter (dds) as the ohio-class ssgn. these six virginia-class ships actually a common dds is shared with the navy and navy personnel can install it on any submarine as needed.

the u.s. navy's current plan is to completely replace the ohio-class ssgn with virginia-class block iv attack nuclear submarines by 2026. in addition, the navy is already exploring other options for large multi-purpose payload submarines, possibly improving upon the columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. payload options include uuvs, submarine-launched drones and network-enabled combat swarms of these unmanned platforms.

the u.s. navy currently plans to purchase at least five large payload submarines, but it is unclear when they will actually enter service. the current plan is to purchase one every three years starting in 2036, in addition to 12 columbia-class virginia-class block i missiles. after the nuclear submarine is completed and put into service. however, some people have begun to worry about the cost of building the columbia class. each ship will cost more than 7 billion us dollars, and it is unknown whether general dynamics and newport news shipbuilding can complete the columbia class construction plan on time. this could push plans to equip large payload submarines further into the future.