What is TUUM6?
The TUUM6 is a submarine telephony system that is mounted on surface vessels and submarines, and is used for something as essential as communication, both via voice and data, between the different actors on naval platforms, including buoys, divers and flash dipping sonar, which helicopters carry to collect information about what is under water.
What are its main characteristics?
In general, the communications we know of are in space. Inside the sea it is a little more complex: the speeds are different and, as we go down, the temperature, density, salinity change… These factors are very difficult to predict. What we use are transducers, which are a kind of antenna installed in the hull of the ship, to transmit sound waves, which are much more efficient to transmit in water than the electromagnetic waves used in the air. When we have different temperatures and so on, layers are created that act as a mirror, and through them we move the waves to the destination we want.
What advantages does this system have over others on the market?
The good thing about the TUUM6 is that it is a multi-frequency device, and that makes it much more versatile to work with, because it allows us a wide range of frequencies. This is up to the user: whether a greater distance and less amount of data prevails or whether a massive amount of data prevails at short distances. For example, in emergency cases, such as a submarine that runs aground on the bottom, we are interested in transmitting a lot of power to send information, even if it is little, and in other cases where we want more position information, or voice, we are interested in going further. And another advantage is that it can be carried from one frigate to another at a given time, because it is a relatively small device. It can also transmit in Morse. In short, the only means we can use to communicate with submarines through water is a system like this.
What would be the typical usage scenario?
Depending on the number and position of the transducers, you will have one type of mission or another. There are many types, from simple maintenance tasks with divers, where you can have a secure voice transmission, to encrypted transmissions from submarines, and you can make a network of transducers through a set of buoys that can connect different systems to locate enemy submarines, for example, by doing triangulation. It has many methods of operation, and in cases of emergency it is the only way to transmit.
Is it the latest technology in underwater communications?
This is a device that is already a few years old, because the defense industry prefers robust equipment that is already well proven. Frigates have a useful life of thirty to forty years, and that is how long this equipment should last on average. By producing it in our plant in Madrid, we have been able to gain experience and open ourselves to future developments of advanced standards, with much more complex and secure communications. The truth is that the TUUM6 is a very robust device that more than meets the needs of the client, and other improvements can still be implemented.
Which customers are building the TUUM6?
We are manufacturing it for the Spanish Navy’s F110 frigates, and for the navies of more than twenty countries. The TUUM6 is produced exclusively at the Leganés plant (Madrid), where it has been fully industrialised. The project began in 2020 and we will not start production until 2023. There were three years in which we were doing an industrial redesign, some improvements that needed to be implemented and training the team in underwater acoustics and this type of electronics. A year ago we started manufacturing and we have already produced fifteen units; it is a very manual job. In the next two and a half years we hope to manufacture another thirty or so.
How is the Spanish defence industry perceived abroad?
We are doing important work. Within the F110, which is a very large and complex project, we give the vision that we have Spanish equipment, which is manufactured here, and the tests are done here. That is a bit of what we want to convey, in Spain we have a powerful industry that works to grow more and more. Thales transfers capabilities, it is a European company but this is a Spanish product. And that is its strength, localizing capabilities.
What challenges remain to be overcome in submarine communications?
Above all, creating more secure communications. We are already working with different standards that encrypt communications to make them much more secure, with faster processing capacity. The TUUM6, in particular, for the functions it has, does not need much evolution, it has everything. The improvements it has are very external and if you can implement them with the current hardware, there is no need to change the equipment.
Does it also improve communication with underwater drones?
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) are fully underwater elements with long-term missions. Their main mission is to collect information from a pre-established area and share it with a surface vessel for processing. These vehicles can store information inside at the cost of limiting the amount of data, but ideally they should surface from time to time to share it via satellite with the nearest vessel. In this type of operation, there is a risk of being intercepted by the enemy, with the risk of information corruption that this entails; a hypothetical scenario for the TUUM6 would involve favouring data transmission via underwater communication to eliminate these possible risks.
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