Advanced Naval Capture and Homing Ordnance Rounds (ANCHOR)

The United States Navy's underway replenishment (UNREP) operations have long relied on the shot line approach for tethering ships, a method that has remained largely unchanged since the Age of Sail. While this technique has served its purpose, it now faces significant challenges in the modern Naval environment, from weather to operating conditions. This maneuver, which has to occur every 4 to 7 days, involves using a gun to propel a cannister (also known as monkey fist) to another ship travelling at speeds of approximately 12 knots with wind conditions exceeding 40 mph. Although sailors are trained for this operation, the manual firing process is highly inaccurate, often requiring multiple attempts to establish a connection. This not only consumes valuable time but also poses safety risks to personnel on the receiving ship, which has to rapidly scramble on a vessel at high sea to recover the cannister.Our proposed solution consists in a modernization of the projectile, implementation of a targeting system and development of a capture mechanism.Ý