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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016
Move over drones, driverless cars — unmanned ship up next
By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — It’s not only
drones and driverless cars that
may become the norm someday
— ocean-faring ships might also
run without captains or crews.
The Pentagon on Monday
showed off the world’s larg-
est unmanned surface vessel, a
self-driving 132-foot ship able
to travel up to 10,000 nauti-
cal miles on its own to hunt for
stealthy submarines and under-
water mines.
The military’s research
arm, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, or
DARPA, in conjunction with
the Navy will be testing the ship
off the San Diego coast over the
next two years to observe how
it interacts with other vessels
and avoids collisions. Unlike
smaller,
remote-controlled
craft launched from ships, the
so-called “Sea Hunter” is built
to operate on its own.
“It’s not a joy-stick ship,”
said DARPA spokesman Jared
B. Adams, standing in front
of the sleek, futuristic-looking
steel-gray vessel docked at a
maritime terminal in the heart
of San Diego’s shipbuilding
district, where TV crews ilmed
the robotic craft.
“Sea Hunter” relies on radar,
sonar, cameras and a global
positioning system. Unmanned
ships will supplement missions
to help keep service members
out of harm’s way, Adams said.
Besides military lead-
ers, the commercial shipping
industry will be watching the
ship’s performance during the
trial period. Maritime compa-
nies from Europe to Asia have
been looking into developing
leets of unmanned ships to cut
down on operating costs and
get through areas plagued by
pirates.
During the testing phase,
the ship will have human oper-
ators as a safety net. But once
it proves to be reliable, it will
maneuver itself — able to go
out at sea for months at a time.
With its twin diesel engines, it
could go as far as Guam from
San Diego on a mission, devel-
opers say. There are no plans at
this point to arm it.
“There are a lot of advan-
tages that we’re still trying to
learn about,” program manager
Scott Littleield said.
The idea in the commercial
sector has sparked debate over
whether it’s possible to make
robotic boats safe enough. The
International Transport Work-
ers’ Federation, the union rep-
resenting more than half of the
world’s more than 1 million
seafarers, has said it does not
believe technology will ever
be able to replace the ability of
humans to foresee and react to
the various dangers at sea.
Others have expressed con-
cern about hackers taking con-
trol. Military oficials have
been working on hacker-proof
protections and say it’s possi-
ble to make ships cyber-secure.
The “Sea Hunter” was
built off the Oregon coast, and
it moved on a barge to San
Diego’s coastline. The pro-
totype can travel at a speed
of up to about 30 mph and is
equipped with a variety of sen-
sors and an advanced optical
system to detect other ships.
The program to develop the
ship cost $120 million, though
DARPA oficials say the ves-
sels can now be produced for
about $20 million.
A self-driving, 132-foot
military ship sits at a mar-
itime terminal Monday, in
San Diego. The Pentagon’s
research arm is launch-
ing tests on the world’s
largest unmanned surface
vessel designed to travel
thousands of miles out at
sea without a single crew
member on board.
AP Photo/Julie Watson
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