How uncrewed systems could extend a survey ship

Would a submarine or long-endurance UUV make a good survey ship?

UUVs are valuable auxiliaries, but a surface mothership is better suited to coordinate communications, processing, and a mixed family of sensors.

Submarines and long-endurance underwater vehicles have useful survey roles, but underwater transmission can reveal position and complicate sensing. A surface ship can instead coordinate multiple uncrewed surface vessels, UAVs, and UUVs alongside hull-mounted sensors. The ship would provide the communications, processing capacity, and human oversight needed to combine their data. The model distributes sensors without forcing every small vehicle to duplicate the mothership's expensive command and support functions.