‘Sea Hunter,’ a drone ship with no crew, just joined the U.S. Navy fleet

 

A prototype autonomous ship known as the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV) has officially been transferred to the U.S. Navy from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) after a two-year testing and evaluation program. Named “Sea Hunter,” the Office of Naval Research will continue to develop the vessel from this point forward.

Although there’s no specific timetable for when the Sea Hunter would join active naval operations, the statement from DARPA indicated that it could happen as early as this year. The anti-submarine warfare vessel could be the first of an entirely new class of warship.

U.S. Will Launch World’s Largest Underwater Battle Robot In 2018

The Sea Hunter will carry out three-month missions without any humans on board

The United States just got one step closer to ushering in the era of robotic naval warfare.

A 132-foot autonomous submarine known as the Sea Hunter successfully completed its first performance test this week off the coast of San Diego, keeping it on course to enter the Navy fleet by 2018. According to a statement from Leidos—the company developing the Sea Hunter—the vessel “surpassed all performance objectives for speed, maneuverability, stability, seakeeping, acceleration/deceleration, and fuel consumption.”

U.S. Navy’s new unmanned sub-hunter to hit the seas this month

The U.S. Navy’s newest sub-hunting maritime drone successfully completed preliminary speed and maneuverability testing in preparation for its christening into the fleet this month.

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Program officials from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and defense technology firm Leidos are spearheading development of the ACTUV. During the Portland tests, the ship was able to reach a top speed of 27 knots, or 31 miles per hour.

The US Navy’s ‘ghost hunter’ hits the water: Robo-boats set to track down silent enemy submarines for months at a time

• Designed to hunt down silent and deadly diesel-electric submarines
• Robot boats will go to sea for us to three months at a time

The US Navy is set to unleash an army of ‘ghost drones’ to scour the coasts for enemy submarines.

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The robot boats will go to sea for us to three months at a time.