In June 2022, Israel's Spear UAV Systems Company announced the Ninox 103 reconnaissance UAV it developed at the UDTS Underwater Defense Technology Exhibition held by the Netherlands. The aircraft is the first aircraft that can be operated by a submarine Underwater launched tactical drone .
Ninox 130 UAV can provide battlefield information on the surface for hidden underwater submarines, improving the submarine's situational awareness. This aircraft will solve the problem of obtaining surface image information that has long plagued submarines, because using periscope may expose its own position, while the Ninox 103 UAV can rely on the optical equipment it carries to replace the periscope, and the detection range is much larger than the latter .
The Ninox 103 UAV is currently in the testing and improvement stage. According to Spear UAV Systems, the aircraft successfully conducted a submarine launch experiment on the coast of Virginia, USA last year. The Israeli Navy is currently testing this drone on a submarine. A drone system . The Ninox 103 drone can be launched 30 meters underwater, but Spear UAS plans to increase this depth to 50 meters to further improve the submarine's stealth.
Ninox 103 UAV adopts a folding four-axis rotor design. The fuselage is folded in the submarine and during the underwater launch phase, and its rotors are unfolded after the body comes out of the water. The UAV has a maximum flight time of 1 hour, a maximum controllable distance of 10 kilometers, a maximum flight speed of approximately 37 kilometers per hour, and a maximum payload of 1 kilogram. In addition to providing surface surveillance images for submarines, the Ninox 103 UAV can also serve as a relay communication node for surface and underwater combat platforms. Since submarine recovery drones may reveal their whereabouts, the production cost of the Ninox 103 drone is very low and can be discarded after completing the mission. In addition, the aircraft can also carry a warhead to attack enemy targets.
Taking into account the very tight space in the active Israeli Navy submarines, the use of the Ninox 103 drone does not require a full-time operator. The control of the drone is completely performed by artificial intelligence , and the submarine only needs to issue instructions to it, and Artificial intelligence will fly the drone to complete the mission instructions it receives.
According to Spear UAV Systems, at least two overseas customers are currently negotiating with the company for the purchase of Ninox 103 UAVs, and the company is also developing a performance model for the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine . The more powerful submarine-launched UAV Ninox 40 is expected to go to San Diego, USA for testing this year.
