The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 08, 1997
Filed:
Aug. 22, 1996
Thomas A O'Connell, North Kingstown, RI (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A communications system of an underwater defense system is decoupled from unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) when the UUV is deployed under the surface of the water. A housing attached to the UUV has a communications wire spooled therein with a first end of the wire coupled to the UUV. Once underwater, the housing separates from the UUV causing the communications wire to be paid out from the housing. As a result, a pulling force is applied to the housing via the communications wire. Communications electronics are coupled to a second end of the communications wire. The communications electronics includes an RF antenna switchably coupled to an RF receiver operating at a first frequency and to an RF transmitter operating at a second frequency. A buoy is coupled to the communications electronics to float same to the surface of the water such that the RF antenna breaks the surface of the water. A drag drogue depends from the housing to supply a drag force hat offsets the pulling force to maintain the buoy at the surface of the water and the RF antenna above the surface of the water.