New unmanned 'Sea Hunter' ship could revolutionize US Navy operations

[Boats]

New unmanned 'Sea Hunter' ship could revolutionize US Navy operations
By: Armed Forces 2-5-18 4 hrs ago
RE: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/02/...perations.html

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

On site there is a video you may want to watch. Can't believe this ship is 100% unmanned?

A revolutionary prototype vessel that could traverse thousands of miles of open sea without a single crew member on board has been handed over to U.S. Navy researchers.

The 132-foot demonstration ship, christened Sea Hunter, has been transferred from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

Sea Hunter, the first of a new class of unmanned vessel that could remain at sea for months at a time, is the result of DARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program. Eventually, the new class of ship will be deployed by the U.S. Navy as the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vessel (MDUSV).

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“As ACTUV transfers from DARPA to ONR, ONR is looking forward to continuing and capitalizing on the science and technology work. In particular, we are already working on autonomous control, a challenging area that is key to maturing MDUSV and delivering it to the fleet,” explained Robert Brizzolara, ONR program officer for MDUSV, in a statement.

DARPA and ONR began sea tests of the ship’s sensing and autonomy technologies in October 2016, Last year, Sea Hunter passed a series of technology integration tests, which relate to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS).

“ACTUV represents a new vision of naval surface warfare that trades small numbers of very capable, high-value assets for large numbers of commoditized, simpler platforms that are more capable in the aggregate,” said Fred Kennedy, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO). “The U.S. military has talked about the strategic importance of replacing ‘king’ and ‘queen’ pieces on the maritime chessboard with lots of ‘pawns,’ and ACTUV is a first step toward doing exactly that.”

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A key part of the project is ensuring that Sea Hunter is capable of performing a host of different missions with a variety of payloads. In 2016, for example, the ship participated in an airborne lift test, towing a ‘sensor mast’ packed with communications equipment from a parachute connected to vessel.

Last year the ship underwent mine-countermeasure sea tests.

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More tests will be performed to automate payload and sensor data processing, develop the ship’s autonomous behavior and coordinate with other unmanned vehicles. Depending on the result of the tests, MDUSV could be used in U.S. Navy operations this year, according to DARPA.

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Note: It has a forward gun but as far as any other armament is not indicated. Wonder what they have in mind? No mention of the cost of this vessel with out-riggers? I would assume is fast but maybe its not an ocean going vessel rather a scout for running inland coastal areas?

Other links of interest: https://youtu.be/wqb4xzhd40w https://youtu.be/ORP1-VaJYQk
https://youtu.be/gvzmxZkAbUM

Boats

[Boats]

The U.S. Navy Just Got the World’s Largest Uncrewed Ship
By: Kyle Mizokami - Feb 5, 2018
RE: https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...uv-sea-hunter/

The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of a revolutionary uncrewed surface ship, one capable of traveling long distances and conducting missions all without a human on board. The Sea Hunter Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel—or ACTUV for short—could someday lead to fleets of unmanned warships plying the world’s oceans, doing everything from hunting submarines to acting as spy ships.

The U.S. Navy ordered the ACTUV in 2012 as part of the Pentagon’s broader push into unmanned air, sea, and land systems. It was envisioned as a platform to test the autonomous concept in surface ships, explore how to safely and securely operate unmanned ships for months at a time over thousands of nautical miles, and create a vessel capable of tracking enemy diesel-electric submarines.

Built at the Christensen Shipyards in Vancouver, Washington, the 132 foot long, 140 ton ship is the world’s largest uncrewed ship. The pilothouse, necessary for a human crew to control the ship, can be unbolted and removed. The ACTUV has a single hull with two outrigger floats to enhance stability at sea, and has a maximum reported speed of 27 knots. From above the ship looks like a Romulan Bird of Prey, its hull and two floats slicing through the water, leaving three wakes.

Video link: https://youtu.be/gvzmxZkAbUM

An autonomous ship like the ACTUV would make an excellent submarine hunter. Conventionally-powered submarines, which make up the bulk of the world’s submarine fleets, can stay underwater for up to two weeks at a time. That’s longer than a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft can stay on station, and a crewed surface ship puts the hunter at risk of becoming the hunted. An uncrewed ship, however, can track an enemy submarine as long as it takes for the sub to make a fatal mistake, then attack with a lightweight homing torpedo.

The ACTUV went to sea in October 2016, and spent 2017 undergoing a series of progressively more difficult tests at sea. Along the way, DARPA realized some important things. For one, the ship was also useful for launching the TALON elevated sensor mast. TALON is basically a militarized parasail towed behind a ship, lifting a 150 pound payload up to 1,500 feet above sea level. Possible payloads for TALON include communications relays in situations where satellite-based communications are unavailable and so-called “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensor packages.

Along the way, DARPA has expanded the potential roles for the ACTUV. No longer just an anti-submarine warfare platform, in 2016 DARPA was referring to the ship as a “payload truck” and the name was changed to Sea Hunter. TALON aside, the possibilities for an uncrewed surface ship are pretty much endless. Uncrewed ships could shoot it out with swarms of Iranian speedboats in the Straits of Hormuz, lay in ambush for a Chinese Navy surface task force, brimming with anti-ship missiles hidden under a stealthy exterior, or sail up and down the North Korean coastline, scooping up radio signals with a spy package hovering a third of a mile above it on TALON, all without exposing a single friendly sailor to danger. Uncrewed ships could even conduct resupply runs in dangerous waters, bring fresh missiles, torpedoes, and other supplies to ships at sea while sending injured sailors back to the rear.

Ships like Sea Hunter are also the future because they have to be. The U.S. Navy has only a limited number of crewed hulls to handle missions at hand, and the personnel costs involved in crewing those ships are a major part of the Navy’s budget. Small uncrewed ships offer a clever, cost-effective alternative. Sea Hunter doesn’t have an engineering section, or ship’s mess section, or anyone else whose role is to keep the ship and crew running. Sea Hunter’s autonomous nature means that a land-based crew need only man the ship’s sensors and weapons, when the ship is in action. A single crew could likely operate multiple Sea Hunters, only “crewing” them when the ship is in action.


Sea Hunter will operate under the Navy’s Office of Naval Research, where it will “develop (Sea Hunter) technologies, including automating payload and sensor data processing, rapidly developing new mission-specific autonomous behaviors, and exploring autonomous coordination among multiple (Unmanned Surface Vehicles)”. After that, likely some time in 2018, Sea Hunter will move on to become part of the broader U.S. Navy and could be assigned to actual real-world missions.