The robotic revolution that transformed warfare in the skies will soon extend to the deep sea, with underwater spy "satellites", drone-launching pods on the ocean floor and unmanned ships hunting submarines.We made note of the original solicitation in 2013's "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Soliciting Proposals for Upward Falling Payloads" but that is just the tip of the naval robotics iceberg. Some recent headlines:
Officials at the US military's research agency outlined new programmes this week that included a number of potentially groundbreaking technologies that could alter the way naval battles are fought, in the same way that robotic aircraft have altered warfare on land and in the air.
One proposed system involves robot pods on the ocean floor that could launch surveillance drones in the air or at sea or provide a communications link when American forces were facing electronic jamming, said Jared Adams, spokesman for Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).
"The motivation is to enable timely deployment of unmanned distributed systems to distant locations by pre-deploying the assets years in advance and then triggering their release for rapid effects at future times of our choosing," Adams said.
The programme has been dubbed "Upward Falling Payloads", or UFP. And officials said the robot pods floating to the water's surface to release various payloads could perform some roles now carried out by submarines, which are much more expensive to operate.
With America's technological edge shrinking, researchers are looking at how to create and build weapons quickly, instead of the drawn-out process that usually prevails at the Pentagon.
Darpa Deputy Director Steven Walker said the agency was "rethinking how we develop new military systems" to be more agile and "cost-effective".
"Some of our systems today are extremely capable, the most capable in the world, but they are very complex, they are costly and take a long time to develop," he said.
The UFP programme of undersea pods poses serious technological challenges, including how to trigger the launchers, how to make them rise to the surface and how to secure a power supply deep under the ocean for more than a year at a time.
Darpa, known for breakthrough experiments over the years that helped create the internet, stealth aircraft, drones, "smart" bombs and micro-technologies, is also keen on some other maritime research....MORE
Inquisitr: "Robot Submarine Hunter: U.S. Navy Set To Deploy ‘Ghost Hunter’ Ships"
Newsweek: "Russian Navy to Develop Arctic Rescue Robots"
Defense One: "The Military’s Robotic Ghost Ship Passes Critical Test"
Popular Science: "UK And France Are Building Robots To Fight Underwater Explosives"
PopSci again: "Ireland’s James Joyce Ship Will Control Flying Robots"
Joyce always did drone on and on
