The Navy’s unmanned (war)ship
February 3rd, 2010 | Maritime operations Science and technology Ships Submarines The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
DARPA's unmanned "robo-frigate" will be designed to track quiet diesel-electric subs, like this Russian Kilo-class boat, while providing continuous updates of their location // NATO
In keeping with the long-term trends in the fleet, this was only a matter of time: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to build a completely unmanned surface ship that will cruise the oceans looking for submarines. DARPA has a request for proposal out this week on an “Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel” — or as The Register succinctly termed it, a “robo-frigate” — with some of the following characteristics:
- “Clean sheet” design “based on no person stepping aboard at any time in its operating cycle.”
- “Size optimized for mission requirements with disproportionate performance for displacement relative to conventional surface platforms.”
- “Sufficient range for independent theater or global deployment.”
- “Optimized for quiet diesel electric submarine track and trail; not a wide area ASW search system.”
- Ability to localize, track and trail a sub target while continuously reporting its location.
The RFP does not say that DARPA wants the robo-frigate to be able to launch a torpedo on an enemy sub; presumably, if it comes to that, it would call in a P-8 Poseidon or a surface ship to do the actual fighting. (Then again, if you built a robo-ship with a Fire Scout-sized flight deck and equipped the UAV with a Mk 54 torpedo, you’re in business.)
So what you’ve got here is a surface sonar platform that you could make only a few hundred tons — or smaller — that the Navy will keep at sea for weeks or months listening for Iranian Chinese North Korean Russian other navies’ SSKs, constantly reporting their locations. That’s not just a new surface ship, it’s an entirely new Navy mission.
Sailors today have already seen the implications of the Navy’s ever-shrinking crews — what do you think about the Pentagon designing a ship that will go to sea with no people at all?
Comments
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Bruce Says:
February 16th, 2010 at 11:35 amWhoa. Sailors should be getting the feelling that Air Force pilots are getting these days — the future is that remotely-piloted vessels could take the place of expensive, manned vessels. One wonders whether they would have the capability to accurately distinguish between real threats (e.g. a dhao loaded with suicidal explosives) and frienndly fishing vessels, and take appropriate action to either evade or strike without setting off a diplomatic crisis.
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Jeffrey Augusto Says:
March 29th, 2011 at 7:48 pmThe possibility of unmanned warships is already happening, the battle now between forces is the speed of the computer system, the reaction of mechanical systems, that two must fit on each other.
Unmanned system is very efficient compared to manned warships because machines don’t get tired, machine always rely on facts/numbers, facts/numbers never lies, us humans no matter how much training we got, we still have emotions, we might think good most of the time but pretty sure there are situations that even we are in front of a very critical system, we still can afford to divert attention consciously or subconsciously to other matters aside from what we are supposed to do.