Robotic sub-hunters

The robotic revolution that transformed warfare in the skies will soon extend to the sea, with underwater spy "satellites," drone-launching pods from the oceans’ floors and unmanned ships on the hunt for submarines. Officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has outlined new groundbreaking-technologies program that could alter the way Navy warfare is fought - in the same way drones have altered land and air warfare. One proposed system - dubbed "Upward Falling Payloads" - envisages robot pods on the ocean floor - activated as needed – to launch surveillance drones or provide a communications link for U.S. troops facing electronic jamming. Source: Agence France-Presse 03/27/15 Gulf Coast Shipbuilding and Maritime Note: Another maritime program, designed to deploy unmanned vessels on the ocean's surface to track submarines, could prove to be a "game-changer." It’s called Anti-submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel. A smaller experimental vessel recently passed six-week tests off the coast of Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico without crashing. The next test is to include a full-sized prototype by fall 2015. Source: Agence France-Presse 03/27/15