As part of DARPA's Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program, Reston Virginia-based company Leidos is building the first robotic autonomous vessel designed to locate and track the extremely quiet diesel submarines that are finding their way into the navy fleets around the world.
Almost the only thing that justifies the expense and skill needed to operate a naval submarine is its ability to disappear underwater and operate invisibly. That’s why countering this advantage by locating and tracking enemy submarines even in peacetime is a major job for naval forces around the world. It’s a task so vital, yet so time consuming and expensive, that it once employed almost the entire Royal Navy during the Cold War, so it’s no wonder that automating sub hunting is a high priority.
As part of the DARPA program, the national security, health and engineering company Leidos is currently building an ACTUV capable of autonomously tracking diesel submarines at extreme depths for months on end. The firm received the okay to go ahead with the work on the craft from DARPA in February.
The unmanned trimaran is built out of carbon composites using a modular design and a parallel workflow method to speed up assembly. It is equipped with navigation and piloting sensors, electro-optics, and long and short range radar.
According to Leidos, the ACTUV’s modular design allows it to not only carry out anti-submarine warfare operations, but to be refitted for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. In addition, the vessel is able to report back on the situation and its condition and has computers programmed to identify other vessels and predict what they will do next.
The ACTUV is being built at Christensen Shipyard in Vancouver, Washington under the supervision of Leidos and Oregon Iron Works. Construction is scheduled to take 15 months with the launch on the Columbia River set for 2015.
"ACTUV's advanced sensor technology should allow for continuous surveillance which, combined with the vessel architecture and design, is expected to provide autonomous safe navigation supporting Navy missions around the world," says Leidos Group President, John Fratamico.
Source: Leidos
How on earth does a diesel submarine stay at any depth for any protracted length of time, even an unmanned one? Do they have extra long snorkel tubes? And why limit the operational competence to diesel engined submarines? Could it be that this device is really intended to thwart drug smugglers?
"... diesel submarines that are finding their way into the navy fleets around the world."
Meaning one of these for each submarine operated by a nation deemed hostile, or potentially hostile. Surely a much cheaper way is to use phased array passive sonar (each vessel has its own unique sound signature) combined with surface bow wave detection by satellite together with magnetic and surface temperature anomaly (particularly for nuclear powered submarines that have not found a thermocline to hide under). For some of the larger submarines, gravitational anomaly detection might also be possible. One thing for sure is that once these detectors have been installed, they will be available for the detection of all submarines and many surface vessels.
It is worth remembering that a nuclear depthcharge can take out any submarine within a six mile radius and possibly even those up to ten miles away.
It's a good idea but would be better if it can submerged for it's protection and no reason not too other than some more cost. If drug smugglers can, do, the military should be able to.
It's electric, fuelcell, other powered subs this is for, not just diesels which only use the diesels on the surface, electric most of the time.
Few subs go under 1,000' and most only 400' or so. None of these are going to sit on the bottom at 2k-10k' deep as they would get crushed by the pressure.
A bunch of these could be mass produced rather cheaply, $150k plus electronics but likely they'll gold plate them to run up the cost.