The U.S. Navy Wants It's Own Fleet Of Naval Drones

An artist rendering of the autonomous vessel. DARPA

The Navy Is Working On A Drone Ship To Remotely Track Submarines -- Business Insider

The drone war taking place over the skies of Afghanistan, carrying out remotely-piloted attacks on terrorist targets, will soon take an unexpected turn — underwater.

The new 'drone ship' is called the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vehicle (ACTUV), and once completed, it will be a totally autonomous, submarine spying platform.

With 43 countries fielding submarines, it's getting tougher for the Navy to track the estimated 600 of them. That may change with the ACTUV program, led by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Raytheon Corp. working to develop it.

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My Comment: In an era where the U.S. defense budget is being slashed .... this is going to be a tough sell.

Here Comes The U.S. Navy's Robot Boats

The Navy recently test-fired missiles from a robot boat. Here a common unmanned surface vehicle patrols for intruders during the Trident Warrior 2011 experiment. U.S. Navy / Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Scott Youngblood

Navy Robot Boat Missiles Sink Attack Swarms -- NBC News

U.S. Navy ships face the growing threat of small boat swarms used by terrorists, pirates or enemy countries. New testing has shown off a possible counter that looks strangely similar except for the lack of human sailors — small robot boats armed with missiles.

The Navy launched six missiles from an unmanned surface boat — called the unmanned surface vessel precision engagement module (USV PEM) — during testing on Oct. 24. The 36-foot (11 meters) robot boat carries both missiles and a .50-caliber machine gun that can take on small boats that may threaten larger Navy warships.

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Update: Navy test-fires missiles from robot boats -- FOX News/Tech News Daily

My Comment: The U.S. Navy is a bit late in developing drones on the water .... but they are making great strides right now.

Here Comes The U.S. Navy's Drones

 

Watch A Robotic Navy Boat Shoot Missiles For The First Time Ever -- Danger Room 

Killer robots have officially gone out to sea. For the first time, the Navy has fired missiles from a remote-controlled boat, as shown in the video above. The firing came as part of a test off the Maryland coast on Wednesday. Six of Rafael’s anti-armor Spike missiles got fired off a moving inflatable hulled watercraft, aiming for a floating target about two miles away. The missile firings and the boat’s controls were all handled remotely by Navy personnel on shore at the Navy’s Patuxent River base.

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 More News On The U.S. Navy's Drone Fleet 

 US tests Israeli-made weapons on pioneering drone ship -- Times of Israel
Now drones take to the seas as U.S. Navy launches unmanned combat boats firing missiles for first time -- Daily Mail
US Navy tests first 11-meter missile-firing sea drone -- Endgadget
US Navy Unveils Missile-Equipped Unmanned Sea Drone (VIDEO) -- Huffington Post
Navy fires test missiles from RC boats; pirates put on notice -- Dvice

Robotic Subs May One Day Span The Oceans

A mine-hunting robot is lowered from the U.S.S. Avenger into the Strait of Malacca, May 2011. Photo: U.S. Navy

Navy Chief: Robotic Subs Might Span Oceans. (Someday.) -- Danger Room

It’s been the Navy’s dream for years: undersea drones that can swim entire oceans. But it’s been thwarted by science’s inability to build propulsion and fuel systems for a journey of that length. Still, the Navy’s top officer and its mad scientists think that some recent research could help turn the dream into an ocean-crossing reality.

“I’m very much desirous of that end-state, cross-ocean, as feasible,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, told reporters on Friday. “There are a few propulsion systems that can give you that range — 30-day, 45-day. The fuel needed, regrettably, is extensive, and that drives the size, so we’re not there yet.”

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My Comment: This is one of the Navy’s many dream .... undersea drones that can swim entire oceans.

The US Navy Has It's Own Plans For Unmanned Vehicles

Navy Official Calls For Rapid Deployment Of Unmanned Vessels -- Government Executive

Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughead said he expects to take unmanned underwater vehicles from experimentation to routine deployments by the end of the decade, boosting the Navy's ability to detect mines, survey coastlines and conduct other sea missions.

Roughead's comments dovetail with findings in the Pentagon's recently released Quadrennial Defense Review of military capabilities and requirements, which urges the Navy to pursue crewless subsurface ships as the military continues to procure and use unmanned aerial vehicles in record numbers.

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My Comment: Playing catchup with US Air Force.

DARPA's Robotic Ghost Ships Will Stalk Submarines

Robot Frigates Now imagine this ship without the people U.S. Navy/Scott Taylor

From Popular Science:

Ships that appear in perfect working order except for a missing human crew would normally raise suspicions that something has gone terribly wrong, possibly in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle. Yet an unmanned frigate is exactly what DARPA's mad scientists at the Pentagon have ordered, according to The Register. The automated ships' mission would have it spending months cruising the seas unmanned, on the hunt for ghostly enemy submarines.

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My Comment: The tech and engineering to pull this off will be impressive .... and probably very expensive (even with a skeletal or unmanned crew).

Trained Seals Being Replaced By Robots

Navy dolphin K-Dog sports a "pinger" device that allows him to be tracked underwater.
Brien Aho/U.S. Navy

From Strategy Page:

November 6, 2009: The U.S. Navy has expanded the number of jobs, its force of about a hundred trained sea mammals (dolphins, sea lions and seals), can carry out. The animals have now been trained to carry a tow line down to an underwater object, so that it can be hauled up, or simply into view. Some of the mammals are also trained to patrol an area, equipped with a harness containing a camera.

Two years ago, the navy sent 30 trained dolphins and sea lions to help guard a submarine base in Puget Sound (near Seattle, Washington) against hostile swimmers. The dolphins are trained to either drop beacons, if they spot a swimmer, or slip a cuff around a swimmers leg. The cuff is attached to a rope, and this allows the dolphins handler to reel in the swimmer.

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My Comment: It seems that humans are not the only ones being replaced by advances in robotic systems.

The Growing Development And Use Of UUVs

The Talisman UUV (Photo from War Is Boring)

Big Robots Operate In The Shadows -- Strategy Page

October 29, 2009: UUVs (unmanned underwater vehicles) have tended to look like torpedoes, if only because that makes it possible to launch them from the torpedo tube of a submerged submarine. But there are some interesting exception. One is the Theseus. Built in the 1990s for the U.S. and Canadian navies, to lay cable under the arctic ice, it is 50 inches (1.27 meter) in diameter, 11 meters long and weighs about nine tons. The Thesus can be out and about for over 60 hours on one mission. Much of its military use is classified, but it, and similar, "large UUVs" are apparently very popular for espionage operations.

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My Comment: It appears that the development of unmanned vehicles is not all in the air .... a good portion of it is happening underwater.

Powerful Ideas: Navy Plans Robotic Barnacle Buster

The US Office of Naval Research recently conducted tests with a developmental ship hull grooming robot, called the Robotic Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming (HULL BUG) tool. The HULL BUG is similar in concept to a autonomous robotic home vacuum cleaner or lawn mower and incorporates the use of a biofilm detector that utilizes modified fluorometer technology to enable the robot to detect the difference between the clean and unclean surfaces on the hull of a ship. Credit: U.S. Navy

From Live Science:

To help save energy on warships, the navy might one day deploy underwater robots that help vessels conserve fuel by scrubbing their hulls clean to make them cut through the water better.

As harmless as barnacles on hulls might seem to landlubbers, these crustaceans generate "increased drag as these ships move from port to port across the world's oceans," explained Office of Naval Research program officer Steve McElvany.

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Israeli Navy To Deploy Robot Craft

Photo: The Protector.

From Space Daily:

The Israeli navy will shortly begin deploying unmanned craft along the Mediterranean coast, particularly off the Hamas-held Gaza Strip in the south and Lebanon in the north where Hezbollah guerrillas operate.

These highly maneuverable unmanned surface vehicles, operated by remote control from land stations, can carry out a wide range of missions, such as patrolling coastal waters to counter gun-running and infiltration with less prospect of being detected than the much larger manned vessels.

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Roboboat?

GB-Challenger Class Craft (Photo from Radix-Marine)

From The New York Times:

In recent years, maritime shipping companies, private security firms and navies around the globe have pondered the problem of high-seas piracy off Africa’s east coast, where more than 150 merchant ships have been attacked by small craft in 2009 alone. What to do? How to thwart a menace that can resemble a fishing boat? And across an area so vast?

It was inevitable that weapons manufacturers and dealers would weigh in. Now one has. Imagine an aquatic drone, an unmanned boat that could patrol the waters off eastern Africa and allow threats to be assessed and engaged by remote control.

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My Comment: If you want to produce a suicide boat .... something like this would be perfect.

Robot Sailing Boat Can Reach Any Given Destination Completely Autonomously

The sail is a lot heavier than one might think. An unusually thick material was used to enable it to withstand the Caribbean storms. (Credit: Image courtesy of SSA/ETH Zurich)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2009) — Mechanical engineering students from ETH Zurich have developed an unmanned sailing boat in a focus project that can reach any given destination completely autonomously. The Avalon robot sailing boat is due to set sail from Ireland in the fall and head for the Caribbean.

The Caribbean is still a long way off. But at least Avalon has already had a taste of the water on Lake Zurich. Admittedly, the first run ended on a sandbank, but that – and everyone agrees – can happen to any sailor. And Avalon has a good excuse: the software program that really enables it to sail by itself is still very much in its infancy. However, the “Students Sail Autonomously” team (SSA) is confident that they can overcome the teething problems.

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My Comment: The Airforce have their UAV fleet, and the Navy is also developing their UAV resources .... but is the Navy also developing a navalbot force? Readers .... please contribute if you know.