Military

DARPA hands autonomous sub-hunter prototype over to the US Navy

Following the successful completion of its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program, DARPA has officially transferred the technology demonstration vessel, christened Sea Hunter, to the Office of Naval Research (ONR)
DARPA
Following the successful completion of its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program, DARPA has officially transferred the technology demonstration vessel, christened Sea Hunter, to the Office of Naval Research (ONR)
DARPA

Following a series of successful sea trials, DARPA has handed its experimental autonomous warship over to the US Navy. The Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) "Sea Hunter" technology demonstrator was formally transferred to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for further development of what could potentially be the first of a new class of ocean-going ships called Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MDUSVs).

With its pilot house, the 132-ft (42-m) ACTUV looks like an odd naval trimaran, but the crew accommodation is only a temporary structure for the robotic craft's human overseers during sea trials. When it's fully developed, it will be a sub hunter capable of leaving port on its own, carrying out its mission across thousands of miles of open sea, and then returning home after three months – all without human intervention. It can even deal with other ships in the area safely and in accordance with maritime laws at only a 10th the cost of a conventional sub hunter.

In cooperation with ONR, DARPA has been developing Sea Hunter since 2012 as a way of providing less expensive autonomous ships to act as a countermeasure against modern, quiet diesel submarines. However, the general MDSUV class is also considered a way to move away from the tendency of advanced navies to consist of a handful of highly advanced warships and toward a more balanced fleet with smaller, unmanned "pawns" augmenting the manned "kings" and "queens."

Sea Hunter began sea trials in July 2016 off the coast of San Diego, California, with further testing in October of that year of the vessel's sensing and autonomy suites. Beginning in February 2017, a series of increasingly challenging, realistic tests were performed to demonstrate the technology demonstrator's ability to comply with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS). In addition, the ACTUV/MDUSV design was tested in regard to its ability to operate with modular payloads as well as using DARPA's Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) and a mine countermeasures (MCM) payload.

"ACTUV's move from DARPA to ONR marks a significant milestone in developing large-scale USV technology and autonomy capabilities," says Alexander Walan, a program manager in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office (TTO). "Our collaboration with ONR has brought closer to reality a future fleet in which both manned warships and capable large unmanned vessels complement each other to accomplish diverse, evolving missions."

DARPA says that ONR will carry out additional sea trials to test automated payload and sensor data processing, rapidly developing new mission-specific autonomous behaviors, and exploring autonomous coordination among multiple unmanned surface vessels. If these are successful, the MDUSV could enter US Navy operations sometime this year.

The video below shows Sea Hunter going through her paces.

Source: DARPA

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6 comments
highlandboy
So how many Greenpeace sail craft moving in its way will it take to stop the craft (all motorised boats must give way to sail craft) before it decides they are operated by pirates. I’d hate to have to program its systems. If it enters a harbour with a sail regatta running how does it differentiate. Or maybe that would be acceptable collateral damage.
The deerhunter
I don't see any obvious solar panels. I wonder what power it runs on for 3 months at a time.
Bob
Another expensive vehicle that can be hacked or jammed.
JimFox
'So how many Greenpeace sail craft' Only ONE- Rainbow Warrior III, that I could find. Hardly a major hazard.
“A sailing vessel has right of way over a power-driven vessel.”
Instead, a careful reading will reveal that the COLREGS do not use the term “right of way.” (Inland waterway rules differ, but this discussion is limited to COLREGS.) “Right of way” implies that one vessel is free from fault if a collision occurs—this is almost never the case, however. When risk of collision exists within the Rule 18 hierarchy, one of the two vessels in a crossing or overtaking situation is to “keep out of the way” of the other vessel. In Rule 9 or 10 situations, certain vessels are “not to impede the passage” of certain other vessels. But no vessel is defined as having the “right of way” over another.
Common sense dictates that warships must be avoided by sailing vessels; a mere regatta would be cancelled in the event of port entry by a warship.
Power for 3 months? Maybe by RAS fuel transfer from designated tanker- one day LFT reactors might be small enough for such a vessel?
EZ
When's all this DARPA, military-industrial complex pillaging going to stop? The public has zero control over the process of wasting tax payer dollars on ridiculous projects that only last a few years, then get sold to our "enemies" so the process can keep going. When are the citizens of this country going to take control? The President doesn't even have access to this stuff, although they can waste a few missiles on innocent bystanders to keep the missile production line going for the people who are really in charge.
ljaques
Cool! I want to ride that cam sail. VBG