Pending test results, Sea Hunter could enter service for the US Navy in 2018 in a variety of roles. Multiple missions: submarine tracking and mine detection “We are already working on autonomous control, a challenging area that is key to maturing MDUSV and delivering it to the fleet,” added Robert Brizzolara, ONR programme officer for MDUSV. “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.” “ACTUV’s move from DARPA to ONR marks a significant milestone in developing large-scale USV technology and autonomy capabilities,” stated TTO programme manager Alexander Walan. ONR will develop the prototype as the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV) and test Sea Hunter’s automated payload and sensor data processing, new mission-specific autonomous behaviours, and autonomous coordination among multiple USVs. DARPA and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) also conducted tests in order to prove a key design element: the vessel’s flexibility to handle diverse missions by switching among modular payloads.ĭARPA completed its ASW ACTUV project in January and transferred the demonstration vessel to ONR the following month. In August 2017, Sea Hunter conducted at-sea tests with a mine countermeasures (MCM) payload. In 2017 three tests took place to integrate the suites and use them to comply with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea during operationally realistic scenarios. Data, insights and analysis delivered to you View all newsletters By the Naval Technology team Sign up to our newsletters Sign up hereĪ successful joint test with DARPA’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems – meaning Sea Hunter could handle communications relays, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sensor packages – was followed by open-water testing of the vessel’s sensing and autonomy suites. Measuring 132ft in length and capable of 27 knots, Sea Hunter is the world’s largest unscrewed ship and is designed as a trimaran, the name given to a multihull vessel comprising a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or ‘floats’) attached to it with lateral beams. Testing times: putting Sea Hunter through its paces “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). According to DARPA, Sea Hunter could ultimately lead to a whole new class of ocean-going vessel and eradicate the need for larger manned warships, transforming conventional submarine warfare. The Class III unmanned surface vessel (USV) has the potential to traverse thousands of kilometres of open ocean for months without a single crew member aboard and at a fraction of current costs – estimates range from $15,000-$20,000 a day compared with $700,000 a day to operate a destroyer. Variously described as “a highly autonomous unmanned ship that could revolutionise US maritime operations” and “a new vision of naval surface warfare”, the drone was developed through the agency’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ASW ACTUV) programme. Even by US military standards, the excitement surrounding Sea Hunter, a prototype unmanned submarine tracking vessel developed at a cost of $20m by US defence research agency DARPA, is startling.