DARPA turns drone ship development over to the Navy
DARPA has completed its part in the development of Sea Hunter , a submarine-hunting drone ship that can cross the open seas without a human crew for months at a time. It has officially handed over the ship's development to its project partner, the Office of Naval Research, which has already begun fine-tuning the drone's autonomous features. The Navy has also renamed the drone to Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV)... which really isn't any better than its old name, Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel or ACTUV. We've got a feeling people will stick to calling it Sea Hunter, unless the Navy can come up with a snappier nickname. Defense contractor Leidos started building Sea Hunter in 2014. DARPA then conducted speed tests in April 2016, christening the 132-foot self-driving ship "Sea Hunter" within the same month. The drone has the ability to hunt foreign-owned stealthy submarines, China and Russia are known for having ...