SNA 2018: MARTAC Showcasing MANTAS T12 USV in ISR Configuration.

At the Surface Navy Association's (SNA) 2018 National Symposium held last week near Washington DC, Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC) was showcasing for the first time its news MANTAS T12 unmanned surface vehicle. MANTAS is a range of unmanned surface vehicules (USV) scalable from 2.5' to 50' in length capable of extremely high speeds and long endurance missions.

MANTAS T12 in ISR configuration on FLIR stand at SNA 2018

According to MARTAC, the entire MANTAS system is designed to reduce manpower, to be an affordable, small footprint, easy to set-up, launch and recover solution that is adaptable to a wide variety of end user missions and host platforms. With the MANTAS system, multiple USVs can be deployed in the water quickly.

Mantas operates on a dedicated, private stand-alone 4GLTE meshed communications network, and mutiple vessels can be operated autonomously, semi-autonomously, or in full control modes from a single mobile command center resident on a laptop, tablet or even on a smartphone.

Our video coverage of the MANTAS T12 at SNA 2018

On display for the first time was the MANTAS T12, one of the larger size available in MARTAC's range of USVs. It has a length of 144 inches, a width of 48 inches. The MANTAS T12 showcased on the FLIR stand at SNA 2018 was representative of an ISR (information, surveillance, reconnaissance) configuration: It was fitted with a SeaFlir 230 Electro-optic system as well as with a Black Hornet nano UAS. MARTAC recently tested the T12 with both systems. The MANTAS can actually be used as a "mothership" to deploy several Black Hornets.

In this configuration, the USV has a top speed of 30 knots and range of around 50 nautical miles. The top speed of the MANTAS T12 in light/baseline configuration is an impressive 50 knots. The T12 has a payload of 140 lbs (about 63 Kg) and an endurance of around 30 days (depending on the mission profiles).

MARTAC told us at the show that the MANTAS T12 may also come in "communication relay" and "mine avoidance" variants. The company is constantly working on improving and developing their concept: MARTAC should roll out later this year a hybrid variant of the MANTAS which will be able to hide (idle) or navigate (at low speed) underwater. MARTAC is also working on fitting new generation, high efficiency, solar panels on top of the MANTAS which would give it "weeks" of endurance.

 
Military Ocean Terminal - ISR and Security Missions with T12 and T6. MARTAC picture.

Throughout 2017, MARTAC demonstrated its MANTAS USV with the US military:

U.S. Navy Citadel Protect
MARTAC was invited to demonstrate MANTAS ISR capabilities as part of Navy’s Citadel Protect Harbor Security Exercise in San Diego, CA. MARTAC successfully collaborated with Spatial Integrated Systems, Inc. (SIS), and SPAWAR's Near-shore Unified Tactical Response (NUTR) System as part of the exercise. A MANTAS T8 deployed with a FLIR EO/IR PTZ camera demonstrated a rapid response ISR capability to the harbor security professionals and Service Members. This was the first event to showcase a remotely operated FLIR EO/IR Gyro stabilized sensor on a USV platform.

U.S. Army Thunderstorm 17-3
As a result of performing exceptional at the U.S. Army sponsored Thunderstorm 17-3, MARTAC was the only Unmanned Maritime platform selected to participate in the Military Ocean Terminal-Concept Demonstration (MOT-CD) in Concord, CA. One of the key demonstrated highlights was the ability to detect intruders/incursions both above and below water. The MARTAC team was also the first to successfully integrate an USV directly into the Army’s Integrated Sensor Architecture (ISA) common operating picture. This allowed MANTAS to send our video and sonar data real time to the Army’s Command Operations
Center.

Navy Recognition had the chance to visit MARTAC in Florida this winter. Our video report on the MANTAS T6 will be published soon.

System Integration & Engineering Advancements in 2017:
External Integrations
❖ SIS – Swarm Control Technology
❖ ISA – Army’s sensor network (Integrated Sensor Architecture)
❖ NUTR – Near-Shore Unified Tactical Response common operating picture application
Industry Payloads/Sensors
❖ Electro-Optical/Infrared Gyro Stabilized Cameras
❖ Multi-Beam Scanning and Forward-Facing Sonar Systems
❖ Electronic Warfare Equipment
Communications
❖ Conventional Military Grade Line of Sight Radios
❖ MANTAS to Shore “live-video” communications streams for sensor payloads
MARTAC Systems
❖ CAS – Collision Avoidance System using LIDAR technology
❖ TASKER Updates – Constant improvement of core MANTAS systems

MARTAC is set to have a strong presence at the Navy League's Sea Air Space 2018 tradeshow in April. Their MANTAS will be taking part in several demonstrations on the river.