MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Russia could set up a special center for designing deep-sea unmanned underwater vehicles, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) CEO Alexei Rakhmanov said.
"We're simultaneously continuing to deal with the matter of unmanned vehicles at the Rubin central design bureau. It looks like it's about time to set up a full-scale manufacturing center for developing such vehicles. We see Rubin's huge desire to become their manufacturer as well, and yet we believe separation between the developers and manufacturers is still justified," Rakhmanov said in an interview with Interfax.
The Russian autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle Vityaz-D dove to the bottom of the Mariana Trench on May 8, 2020, and its sensors recorded a depth of 10,028 meters.
The corporation is working on a new crewed deep-sea vehicle, Rakhmanov said.
"Decisions have been made in favor of financing a somewhat different project, not the one initiated by Fyodor Filippovich [Konyukhov, a prominent explorer]. We confidently work at depths of up to 6,000 meters, and we've shown it with the Vityaz that we can go as deep as the bottom of the Mariana Trench in an unmanned format. A new habitable vehicle will utilize all the know-how tested on the Vityaz, although there's still a lot of work ahead to ensure security, like protection of the respiratory organs, protection against pressure, compression mechanisms, and so on," he said.
"I think this apparatus simply wouldn't be able to hold more than two passengers. Each person means oxygen, food, temperature conditions, and so on. The more people, the bigger the apparatus, the more complicated its design, and the more concerns about its security," he said.