Wars and warships are getting smarter and more technical by each passing day. The one who can keep a step ahead of the other will be b...
Wars and warships are getting smarter and more technical by each passing day. The one who can keep a step ahead of the other will be better poised to win. DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) keeps working on new technologies to better its defence systems in order to gain an edge in case of a war. Continuing with the same zest DARPA is just a few steps short in completing a 140-tonne 132-feet long unmanned surface drone capable of hunting submarines in the open ocean.
This drone has been christened as the
Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV for
short). A huge advantage of using this drone would come in terms of
money as according to DARPA estimates the vessel would cost drastically
less than that of a typical naval destroyer, operating on roughly $15k
to $20k per day as compared to around $700k per day for a traditional
warship.
The ACTUV will be used to robustly track
quiet diesel electric submarines. Apart from this, it has three primary
goals. First, the agency wants to test the efficiency and effectiveness
of of using an autonomous vessel in the field with a hope that not even
a single human being is required to man the vessel. Secondly, DARPA
looks to display the range the ACTUV is capable of covering on missions
while remaining autonomously compliant with maritime laws. And finally,
it hopes to demonstrate the drone’s unique ability to track and follow
even the quietest of submarines over long distances.
