ST Engg unveils USV aspirations at IMDEX Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engg) revealed at IMDEX Asia that it has been working on developing a USV, dubbed Venus, to meet naval requirements in the region. The work on the USV is being spearheaded by its ST Electronics division. The business unit's Deputy President, Operations and President, Defence Business, Lee Fook Sun, told Unmanned Vehicles that work on the USV is advanced with full trials of the system expected before the end of the year. Lee said that Venus will have a high level of autonomy with waypoint navigation, some levels of autonomous target detection and advanced obstacle and collision avoidance . The last area is one that Lee describes as 'challenging but doable'. The company selected a 9m platform based on a fast speedboat design supplied by a Hawaiian based speed boat manufacturer as the basis for Venus. However, all the important integration work on the USV's autonomy and sensors has been accomplished by ST Electronics, which has in house engineering expertise in a number of areas including simulation. Lee believes that the basic design can be developed to address a number of potential requirements. 'We see the first payload being a gun if you look at the anti-piracy requirement,' he states. Further out the company is also looking at integrating a mine-countermeasures (MCM) capability and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) systems. A full suite of Venus USVs would likely include Precision Fire, MCM, ASW and Force Protection variants. The company has been discussing the work on Venus with the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), which it sees as one of its first potential customers. The RSN has experience with USVs having used Rafael's Protector USV operationally. However, Lee is also confident that there are other potential regional customers who might prefer a local solution and added that there had been a lot of interest at the exhibition. ST Electronics is now working through its trials process and Lee says that there will definitely be full trials of the developmental system before year end. At the same time the company is using its modelling and simulation expertise to develop both the doctrinal approach and the human machine interface. The company has not settled on how many individual USVs would make up a single system with it preferring to study a variety of potential concepts of operations. However, the companies promotional video clearly shows that the aspiration is that Venus USVs would be able to work collaboratively to detect and engage targets. For more go to: UVOnline.com