SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE DEVELOPMENT FOR COUNTERING UNMANNED UNDERWATER VEHICLES

This report presents the development of a structured approach for architecting counter unmanned underwater vehicle (cUUV) system concepts supported by model-based system engineering (MBSE) analysis. Global proliferation of UUVs and advanced payloads presents a risk to U.S. maritime interests. To address this issue, UUV missions, platforms, and payloads are characterized to derive a cUUV taxonomy to describe cUUV employment concepts, functions, and methods. A passive mine countermeasure (MCM) mission is selected for detailed analysis using an agent-based model (ABM). Using an exploratory ABM simulation, MCM UUV measures of performance are evaluated for vulnerabilities. Using the vulnerabilities, three cUUV system concepts exploring the breadth of the taxonomy are developed and evaluated in the ABM. The simulation results provide key insights into the effectiveness of the proposed cUUV system concepts and the broader counter UUV mission. Building on the insights and findings from the methods and results, recommendations are presented for future work in the emerging cUUV field of research.