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| D-19 French Navy Mainstay Underwater Drone |
Militarymedia.net - The underwater drone universe adds a new family with the presence of the D-19 made by the Naval Group. Set to start mass production in mid-2021, the plan is that at the end of 2021, the French Navy is predicted to be the first user of this versatile underwater drone.
If you still remember the underwater drone belonging to the United States, the Bluefin-21 which was captured by the Chinese military in the South China Sea, the D-19 is arguably the same design and function as the Bluefin-21. This underwater drone training variant, the D-19T, was just introduced at the 2020 Euronaval event.
The Naval Group said the D-19 was built from the F21 torpedo platform, this can be proven from the diameter of this drone which is identical to the heavy weight torpedo standard NATO, 533 mm. Because it carries the same caliber as the torpedo, the D-19's mobility can be launched silently from a submarine's torpedo launch tube.
The D-19 is designed to carry out missions intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), ASW training, underwater mobile targets, mine countermeasures, rapid environmental assessment and mine and mine laying. Referring to the dimensions, the D-19 is 5 to 8 meters long and weighs under 1 tonne.
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| D-19 French Navy Mainstay Underwater Drone |
D-19 navigation technology relies on INS / GPS and doppler loch, then for communication lines with the control center carrying underwater wireless transceiver, UHF (ultra high frequency) and satellite communication (satcom). As for control, there is an option for advanced auto guidance or fibro guidance. To ensure data security, D-19 implements non storage of sensitive informations.
