“Navigating Tomorrow: The Game-Changing Impact of Autonomous Technology on Naval Missions”

Anschütz has developed an outstanding, cohesive Autonomous Navigation and Command System for marine vessels. By utilizing dependable, easily accessible, and type-certified components, it enhances safety and sustainable functionality for unmanned systems, while preserving complete technological autonomy.

Flexible from supportive systems to highly automated solutions, and from the oversight and management of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to automation solutions for large combatants, the system introduces additional value across diverse operational scenarios.

Acting as a dynamic solution, the integrated navigation and command technology from Anschütz ensures precise and secure autonomous navigation, control, and operation of unmanned vessels, alongside remote supervision and management from shore stations, operation centers on motherships, or mobile, modular setups.

Beyond autonomous navigation, the system supports highly flexible, autonomous execution of various missions, as well as data transmission and integration into a cohesive operational overview. By linking diverse units within a network of autonomous systems, the speed and effectiveness of maritime operations can be greatly improved.

• Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR)
  This system executes exceptionally effective autonomous ISR operations, particularly through the collaboration of multiple units. By integrating advanced electro-optical sensors and various technologies, the tactical mission modules detect and classify contacts and anomalies, merging them in real-time into a clear, precise, and actionable maritime picture.

• Minelayer Countermeasures – Underwater Detection
  The system integrates a sonar architecture, delivering comprehensive capabilities for identifying, classifying, and documenting mines and other anomalies within a unified tactical overview. This enables large areas (e.g., harbor entrances, shipping routes, anchor points) to be autonomously and efficiently scanned for possible underwater threats, establishing a secure operational environment.

• Escort / Surveillance
  To protect high-value assets, the autonomous system can be seamlessly integrated into existing operational strategies and thorough point defense measures. It dynamically identifies threats and responds effectively. The system autonomously guides the unmanned vessel in a regulation-based manner (e.g., following predefined routes, considering rendezvous points, formations, and compliance with COLREG regulations), ensuring ongoing environmental monitoring and early identification and reporting of potential dangers.

The Autonomous Navigation and Command System expands the commercially available, reliable SYNAPSIS integrated navigation framework. The enhanced system incorporates additional optical sensors and surveillance technologies to deliver comprehensive maritime situational awareness, boasting refined tactical target management, automatic collision avoidance, and dynamic motion regulation. Additional software modules enable automated execution of specific tactical functions, facilitate data exchange within the autonomous system network, and are designed for future synergy and integration with maritime C4ISR systems.

The Autonomous Navigation and Command System has undergone extensive testing in autonomous operations, including two years of assessments in the Kiel Fjord with over 200 collision avoidance scenarios under realistic conditions. Most recently, a comprehensive high-speed demonstration with CMN Naval and German Naval Yards in Cherbourg, France, has validated the capabilities of the Anschütz Autonomous Navigation and Command System.