''Sea Hunter'' is an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

unmanned surface vehicle Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), also known as unmanned surface vessels, autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) in some cases, uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), or colloquially drone ships, or robot boats, are boats or ships that operate on the ...

(USV) launched in 2016 as part of the

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Ad ...

Anti-Submarine Warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (

ACTUV The ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) is a DARPA funded project launched in early 2010 to develop an anti-submarine drone (unmanned surface vehicle). ASW is an acronym for Anti-Submarine Warfare. In January 2018 after successful sea tr ...

) program. The ship was christened 7 April 2016 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. It was built by

Vigor Industrial Vigor Industrial (Vigor) is an American shipbuilding, shiprepair, and industrial service provider in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Based in Portland, Oregon, the company consists of several subsidiary companies for a combined total of seven ...

. The vessel continues the line of experimental "Sea" ships, including '' Sea Shadow'', '' Sea Fighter'', ''

Sea Jet ''Sea Jet'', or Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator (AESD), is a naval testbed funded by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research. The vessel is operated out of the Carderock Division's Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview, Idaho. ''Sea Je ...

'', and '' Sea Slice''.DARPA’s Autonomous Sub-Tracker
- Copybook.com.Military, 11 April 2016 ''Sea Hunter'' is classified as a Class III USV and designated the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV).Navy anti-submarine drone-ship conducts minehunting testing
- Defensesystems.com, 4 May 2017

Description

The initially unarmed prototype, built at a cost of twenty million dollars, is a 132-foot (40 meter)-long trimaran (a central hull with two outriggers). It is an unmanned self-piloting craft with twin screws, powered by two

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s with a top speed of . Her weight is 135 tons, including 40 tons of fuel, adequate for a 70-day cruise. Cruising range is "transoceanic," at fully fueled with of diesel, enough "to go from

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

and back to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

on a tank of gas." ''Sea Hunter'' has a full load displacement of 145 tons and is intended to be operational through

Sea State In oceanography, sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water—with respect to wind waves and swell—at a certain location and moment. A sea state is characterized by statistics, including the wave height, ...

5, waves up to high and winds up to , and survivable through Sea State 7, seas up to high. The trimaran hull provides increased stability without requiring a weighted

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

, giving her a higher capacity for linear trajectories and better operations in shallow waters, though the greater width decreases maneuverability. A removable operator control station is installed during the testing period "for safety and backup" until it can be determined to reliably operate on her own. Operationally, computers will drive and control the ship, with a human always observing and taking charge if necessary in a concept called Sparse Supervisory Control, meaning a person is in control, but not " joy sticking" the vessel around. The system can patrol without human guidance, using optical guidance and radar to avoid hitting obstacles or other watercraft. The ship has a host of non-standard features because of her lack of crew, including an internal layout that offers enough room for maintenance to be performed but not for any people to be permanently present. It is fitted with quicKutter shaft protection rope/line cutters from Quickwater Marine in Perth; these devices protect the vessel from damage caused by rope or net caught by the propellers, without affecting the vessel's performance. The craft is expected to undergo two years of testing before being placed in service with the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

. If tests are successful, future craft of this type may be armed and used for anti-submarine and counter-mine duties, operating at a cost of $15,000–20,000 per day, a fraction of the cost of a destroyer at $700,000 per day (in 2015, ); it could operate with

Littoral Combat Ship The littoral combat ship (LCS) is either of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeat ...

s, becoming an extension of the LCS ASW module. Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Work said that if weapons are added to the ship, a human would always remotely make the decision to use lethal force. Following successful initial development, it was reported on 1 February 2018 that DARPA had handed development of ''Sea Hunter'' to the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

Sea trials and operations

On 22 June 2016, ''Sea Hunter'' completed initial performance trials, meeting or surpassing all performance objectives for speed, maneuverability, stability, seakeeping, acceleration/deceleration, fuel consumption, and mechanical systems reliability in the open-ocean. Upcoming trials will include testing of sensors, the vessel's autonomy suite, compliance with maritime collision regulations, and proof-of-concept demonstrations for a variety of U.S. Navy missions. ''Sea Hunter'' was sent to the ONR in summer 2017 for operational testing and evaluation for mine-countermeasure, EO/ IR, and submarine detection capabilities. Plans for FY 2018 include adding

intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing t ...

(ISR) and offensive anti-submarine payloads. In August 2022, ''Sea Hunter'' and other unmanned vessels and ( Ghost Fleet Overlord) participated in the Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC).

Influence

It has been reported in 2020 that the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

was building clones of ''Sea Hunter''.

References

External links

* {{youtube , doi9oBeNd38, DARPA ACTUV Sea Hunter - Christening Unmanned surface vehicles of USA Experimental ships of the United States Navy DARPA projects Ships built in Portland, Oregon 2016 ships Autonomous ships