US Tests World's Largest Unmanned Sub Hunter
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
The US military is beginning testing on the world's largest unmanned ship - a self-driving 40-metre vessel designed to travel thousands of kilometres out at sea without a single crew member on board.
The 132-foot "Sea Hunter" will patrol the world’s oceans hunting and tracking enemy submarines and it will do it all without a single human aboard.
The drone vessel can track an enemy submarine for thousands of miles for months at a time.
“[The Sea Hunter] as the unique capability to go out, to see other vessels operating potentially in our own waters,” said Jared Adams of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).
During the testing phase, the ship will have human operators as a safety net, but once it proves to be reliable, the autonomous surface vessel will manoeuvre itself — able to go out at sea for months at a time.
Program manager Scott Littlefield said there will be no "remote-controlled driving of the vessel." Instead it will be given its mission-level commands telling it where to go and what to accomplish and then software will enable it to drive itself safely.
The ship's projected $20 million (£14.2 million) price tag and its $15,000 (£10,650) to $20,000 (£14,300) daily operating cost make it relatively inexpensive for the navy.