Self Driving Warship

World’s largest self-driving warship trials successful.

12:11 01 August 2016

US Navy’s world’s largest self-driving warship called the ‘Sea Hunter’ has completed its first sea trials. The $20million vessel can reach speeds of 27 knots per hour and is designed to travel thousands of miles out at sea without a single crew member on board, raising hopes that it can one day revolutionise commercial shipping and military’s maritime service.  

 

The ship was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) along with Virginia-based Leidos.

 

Leidos said: 'The 132-foot trimaran, christened Sea Hunter at a ceremony in April, met or surpassed all performance objectives for speed, maneuverability, stability, seakeeping, acceleration/deceleration, and fuel consumption, as well as establishing confidence in mechanical systems reliability in an open-ocean environment,'

 

Darpa will test the ship in conjunction with the Navy over the next two years off California’s coast, focusing on its ability to react on its own to avoid collisions with seafaring traffic. The test will see the involvement of human operators until the ship proves to be reliable and can maneuver itself at sea for months at a time.

 

Program manager Scott Littlefield said there will be no 'remote-controlled driving of the vessel'. Instead, mission-level commands will be given and the software will enable it to drive itself safely.