The U.S. naval fleet of the future may one day include submarines without a sailor from bow to stern, prowling the depths of the ocean and navigating mine-infested waters to gather intelligence or even clandestinely drop explosives.
The military views autonomous vehicles as a way to accomplish missions deemed too risky, mundane or expensive for human crews. While aerial drones have largely been tasked with these types of duties for more than a decade, the Navy is now increasingly funding robotic ships and undersea drones to complement the work done by its crewed vessels.
Last month, Boeing beat out rival Lockheed Martin for a $46.7-million Navy contract modification to build an Orca undersea drone. Boeing had previously won a contract to build four of the Orca drones, bringing the total contract value for the five to $274.4 million. A large chunk of work will be done at the aerospace giant’s Huntington Beach, Calif., facility, and the drones are expected to be completed by 2022.
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READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE @https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-is-building-orca-robot-submarines-under-quarter-billion-dollar-navy-contract/
But developing undersea drones comes with a host of technical challenges not experienced by aerial counterparts.
For one, water is a much thicker medium, which makes real-time communication much more difficult than sending transmissions through air, said Rosa Zheng, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh University.
Undersea drones can use a few different methods of communication, such as acoustics, but must be willing to trade off a slower data rate, shorter transmission distance, or both, she said.
As a result, the drones must be endowed with a greater level of autonomy than aerial drones, said Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at the Rand Corp. think tank. Unlike an aerial drone, which can access satellite communications to gain its bearings and show what it sees in real time to a human operator thousands of miles away, an underwater drone loses access to the electromagnetic spectrum once it is below the waterline, he said.
That means the drone would have to handle changing weather conditions or avoid obstacles underwater without human assistance. It would also need to resurface to send faster transmissions and gain access to GPS.
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Eventually, the Navy could pair these underwater drones with their uncrewed surface counterparts.
This year, the Navy’s 132-foot-long Sea Hunter autonomous surface vessel sailed from San Diego to Hawaii and back without crew aboard. The ship’s maker, Reston, Va.-based Leidos, said humans made “very short-duration boardings” only to check electrical and propulsion systems.
The military views autonomous vehicles as a way to accomplish missions deemed too risky, mundane or expensive for human crews. While aerial drones have largely been tasked with these types of duties for more than a decade, the Navy is now increasingly funding robotic ships and undersea drones to complement the work done by its crewed vessels.
Last month, Boeing beat out rival Lockheed Martin for a $46.7-million Navy contract modification to build an Orca undersea drone. Boeing had previously won a contract to build four of the Orca drones, bringing the total contract value for the five to $274.4 million. A large chunk of work will be done at the aerospace giant’s Huntington Beach, Calif., facility, and the drones are expected to be completed by 2022.
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READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE @https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-is-building-orca-robot-submarines-under-quarter-billion-dollar-navy-contract/
But developing undersea drones comes with a host of technical challenges not experienced by aerial counterparts.
For one, water is a much thicker medium, which makes real-time communication much more difficult than sending transmissions through air, said Rosa Zheng, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh University.
Undersea drones can use a few different methods of communication, such as acoustics, but must be willing to trade off a slower data rate, shorter transmission distance, or both, she said.
As a result, the drones must be endowed with a greater level of autonomy than aerial drones, said Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at the Rand Corp. think tank. Unlike an aerial drone, which can access satellite communications to gain its bearings and show what it sees in real time to a human operator thousands of miles away, an underwater drone loses access to the electromagnetic spectrum once it is below the waterline, he said.
That means the drone would have to handle changing weather conditions or avoid obstacles underwater without human assistance. It would also need to resurface to send faster transmissions and gain access to GPS.
~*~*~*~
Eventually, the Navy could pair these underwater drones with their uncrewed surface counterparts.
This year, the Navy’s 132-foot-long Sea Hunter autonomous surface vessel sailed from San Diego to Hawaii and back without crew aboard. The ship’s maker, Reston, Va.-based Leidos, said humans made “very short-duration boardings” only to check electrical and propulsion systems.
