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Military

DARPA readies unmanned ACTUV sub hunter for sea trials

By David Szondy
February 16, 2016
DARPA readies unmanned ACTUV sub hunter for sea trials
The ACTUV is designed to autonomously track potentially hostile submarines
The ACTUV is designed to autonomously track potentially hostile submarines
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Artist's concept of the ACTUV
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Artist's concept of the ACTUV
The ACTUV is designed to autonomously track potentially hostile submarines
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The ACTUV is designed to autonomously track potentially hostile submarines

The day of the robot warship may be a lot closer than many people think with DARPA announcing that it will christen its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) on April 9 at the Swan Island shipyard in Portland, Oregon. Also known as the Seahunter, the 139 ft (42 m) long vessel is designed to track potentially hostile submarines for months at a time without a crew.

According to DARPA, the ACTUV is one answer to the problem of modern navies that are shrinking under the pressure of dwindling budgets and the advent of more advanced and sophisticated systems. The idea is that instead of relying on large conventional ships that take years to develop and are increasingly expensive to build and operate, the US Navy could use a mixture of conventional and smaller unmanned ships to confront fast-emerging threats.

In the case of the ACTUV, the current design is a trimaran made to test new sensors and advanced autonomous systems as well as propulsion systems capable of outrunning a diesel sub. In a press conference reported by Digital Trends, the ACTUV can operate for around 30 to 90 days at sea without a crew, while leaving and returning to port on its own.

In addition, DARPA says that it can operate safely and in accordance with maritime laws at only a tenth the cost of a conventional sub hunter, which means that commanders have less to risk by sending it into hazardous waters. Also, it has no need of a conventional ship's dynamic stability and reserve buoyancy, so the design is simpler.

Images published at Foxtrot Alpha show that the ACTUV is already in the water and has been fitted with a temporary pilot house for its upcoming 18 months of sea trials. If the program goes to schedule, the ship may enter service some time in 2017.

The video below outlines the ACTUV program.

Source:

DARPA

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MilitarySubmarineDARPAAutonomous
5 comments
David Szondy
David Szondy
David Szondy is a playwright, author and journalist based in Seattle, Washington. A retired field archaeologist and university lecturer, he has a background in the history of science, technology, and medicine with a particular emphasis on aerospace, military, and cybernetic subjects. In addition, he is the author of four award-winning plays, a novel, reviews, and a plethora of scholarly works ranging from industrial archaeology to law. David has worked as a feature writer for many international magazines and has been a feature writer for New Atlas since 2011.

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Mel Tisdale
As the accuracy of GPS improves (see yesterday's edition'), so too, I assume, will that of any ballistic missiles that use it for guidance to target. And so it is that the notion of nuclear weapons providing a deterrence to their use by the opposition is slowly being eroded.
One counter to this, is, or rather 'was' the nuclear missile submarine, currently taking the form of Trident D5. If America is developing this anti-submarine capability, then in the way of things in a Cold War, we can legitimately assume that Russia is also developing the same capability, or very soon will be.
In days of the old Cold War, hair-raising false alarms not withstanding, we as a species survived because both sides operated a policy of deterrence simply because of the then limited technical capability. Today it is different. We will soon have a situation where both sides are capable of destroying the other side's command, control, communication and intelligence (C cubed I) launch infra-structure a.k.a. its deterrence capability. And so it is that we march lemming-like into an age where the side that 'shoots' first with a pre-emptive first-strike wins, and does so decidedly, with no ladder of escalation as is the case with deterrence. The only defence, if such is what it is, is to adopt a 'launch on warning' strategy. One misread radar return from a flock of migrating geese and it could be game over for us.
Surely we can find a better solution to the over-population problem, can't we? In the U.K. there is much talk at present about Trident as a deterrent. The media and those few politicians who have taken the trouble to research the topic would do us all a favour if they were to describe Trident more accurately as a 'first-strike' capability.
jerryd
No Mel Russia already has shown similar units and these are to counter those. Plus they have many other uses, kind of drones on the sea. The question is why so big? No reason this mission couldn't be made in 80'. Done as a cat with either wind or solar power in just 50'. A 50 unit fleet off our coasts could protect us from manned or unmanned subs.
Nelson
A lot of money wasted on something we will hopefully never need to use. Also, the sonar on this thing is of such a high pitch and magnitude it will be killing a lot of marine mammals.
Douglas Bennett Rogers
I don't think the Chinese subs wil be diesel powered.
Stephen N Russell
Id add more ASROCs alone & expand sonar, add CIWS deck guns, 50 cal MG or 40mm cannon for surface shooting. Deploy from HI, FL, VA CT ME MA, NC/SC, TX alone., Use to deter drug trade with Venezula. Thus triple deck side arms alone Need midships torpedo tubes too.