The Leidos company has begun construction of the ACTUV or Autonomous Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel drone, designed to monitor enemy submarines through ocean patrols in three-month missions.
The new hunter killer of the seas was commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA.
The ACTUV will carry out a series of missions: from reconnaissance to the surveillance of enemy submarines. The trimaran, will use the on-board sensors to monitor the "traffic" in the depths of the seas thanks to its long and short-range radar. The automation of the ACTUV is so high that it requires minimal human intervention.
In DARPA's short-term projects there is that of an unmanned warship capable of carrying out patrols even for six months. The submarine drone will be the first boat of a new class that is autonomous and independent of man (at least on a mission). And that this is the direction now taken by the Pentagon there is no doubt. Suffice it to say that the initial specifications of the ACTUV did not in any way provide for the presence on board of a human. This translates into a zeroing of losses and the ability to extend missions at sea (the latter are limited both by the stress of the staff on board the supplies as well as the natural wear and tear of the systems).
Curious, but not so much, also the way in which the "brain" of the drone was developed. In April 2011 - Leidos president John Fratamico told FoxNews - we made available to all gamers in the world, the "Dangerous Water" simulator developed by Sonalysts Combat Simulations and released in 2005. Thanks to the free download, the players on the planet were able to experiment with their own tactics in dealing with missions. The strategies used by the players were examined by the company to improve and develop the main software. In fact, even before writing the software, DARPA asked for the approach and method of gamers who have ventured into combat simulation.
The construction will last fifteen months. The first test in the Columbia River in the 2015.
Franco Iacch
(image: DARPA)
