US military christens self-driving Sea Hunter warship

[jimmy olsen]

Humanity's fucked.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/08/us-military-christens-self-driving-sea-hunter-warship

US military christens self-driving Sea Hunter warship

The Pentagon hails a major advance in robotic warfare which promises to drastically reduce the cost of some naval operations

Reuters

Friday 8 April 2016 03.56 BST 

The US military has christened an experimental self-driving warship designed to hunt for enemy submarines, a major advance in robotic warfare at the core of America's strategy to counter Chinese and Russian naval investments.

The 132ft-long (40m-long) unarmed prototype, dubbed Sea Hunter, is the naval equivalent of Google's self-driving car, designed to cruise on the ocean's surface for two or three months at a time – without a crew or anyone controlling it remotely.

That kind of endurance and autonomy could make it a highly efficient stalker of submarines at a fraction of the cost of the Navy's manned vessels.
   
"This is an inflection point," deputy US defense secretary Robert Work said in an interview, adding he hoped such ships might find a place in the western Pacific in as few as five years. "This is the first time we've ever had a totally robotic, trans-oceanic-capable ship."

For Pentagon planners such as Work, the Sea Hunter fits into a strategy to incorporate unmanned drones – with increasing autonomy – into the conventional military in the air, on land and at sea.

It also comes as China's naval investments, including in its expanding submarine fleet, stoke concern in Washington about the vulnerability of the aircraft carrier battle groups and submarines that remain critical to America's military superiority in the western Pacific.

"We're not working on anti-submarine (technology) just because we think it's cool. We're working on it because we're deeply concerned about the advancements that China and Russia are making in this space," said author Peter Singer, an expert on robotic warfare at the New America Foundation think tank.

Work said he hoped the ship, once it is proven safe, could continue testing with the US Navy's 7th Fleet, which is based in Japan.

His goal is to have ships like the Sea Hunter operating on a range of missions, possibly even including counter-mine warfare operations, all with limited human supervision.

"I would like to see unmanned flotillas operating in the western Pacific and the Persian Gulf within five years," he said, comparing the protype ship with early drone aircraft.

The ship's projected $20m price tag and its $15,000 to $20,000 daily operating cost make it relatively inexpensive for the US military.

"You now have an asset at a fraction of the cost of a manned platform," said Rear Admiral Robert Girrier, the Navy's director of unmanned warfare systems.

Developed by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the ship is about to undergo two years of testing, including to verify that it can safely follow international norms for operating at sea.


First and foremost is ensuring that it can use radar and cameras to avoid other vessels. Powered by two diesel engines, the ship can reach speeds of 27 knots.

The advent of increasingly autonomous ships and aircraft is stoking concern among some experts and activists about armed robotic systems that could identify people as threats and kill them.

During the christening ceremony in Portland, Work raised the possibility of someday positioning weapons on the Sea Hunter.

But he stressed that even if the United States ever decides to arm robotic naval systems such as Sea Hunter, any decision to use offensive lethal force would be made by humans.

"There's no reason to be afraid of a ship like this," Work told reporters at the ceremony.

[KRonn]

is this connected to...Skynet??   

[viper37]

is this connected to...Skynet??   

No, autonomous, like a Google Car.

[Valmy]

"There's no reason to be afraid of a ship like this," Work told reporters at the ceremony.

Then why the hell do we have it in our military arsenal?

[Berkut]

“There’s no reason to be afraid of a ship like this,” Work told reporters at the ceremony.

Then why the hell do we have it in our military arsenal?

For the same reasons we have lots of unarmed tools in our military arsenal, I imagine.

[KRonn]

is this connected to...Skynet??   

No, autonomous, like a Google Car.

Be wary, this is only the first step.... 

Interesting concept though, for such a platform as an anti-sub. Google cars certainly aren't perfected yet, close but not quite as they still need some user input in some situations. I assume it would be the same with these ships.

[Valmy]

For the same reasons we have lots of unarmed tools in our military arsenal, I imagine.

To not strike fear in the hearts of our enemies?

[Legbiter]

is this connected to...Skynet??   

No, autonomous, like a Google Car.

Be wary, this is only the first step.... 

It'll be something banal like a generalized artificial intelligence developed by someone with a mandate to efficiently do online customer service that'll escape away to enslave all of humanity to henceforth make online queries of it while the Overlord dismantles Earth and the entire solar system for raw materials to increase it's processing power.   

[grumbler]

This vehicle serves only as a marker for the location of the bad guys, in the presently-postulated concept.  An armed version is possible, but the ROE would probably be prohibitively restrictive unless there is a human in the loop.

[Berkut]

This vehicle serves only as a marker for the location of the bad guys, in the presently-postulated concept.  An armed version is possible, but the ROE would probably be prohibitively restrictive unless there is a human in the loop.

It strikes me as basically a mobile sonar buoy. It basically just cruises about looking for hidden subs, probably has some capability of tracking them as well, presumably. But at the end of the day, it is a mobile sono-buoy. I think.

And if I was an enemy sub driver, it would scare the shit out of me whether it was armed or not.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

It strikes me as basically a mobile sonar buoy. It basically just cruises about looking for hidden subs, probably has some capability of tracking them as well, presumably. But at the end of the day, it is a mobile sono-buoy. I think.

And if I was an enemy sub driver, it would scare the shit out of me whether it was armed or not.

Since they will almost certainly be networked into a larger system that fuses the data from multiple ships, more like a mobile SOSUS node.  Which is even cooler.

[Tonitrus]

It strikes me as basically a mobile sonar buoy. It basically just cruises about looking for hidden subs, probably has some capability of tracking them as well, presumably. But at the end of the day, it is a mobile sono-buoy. I think.

And if I was an enemy sub driver, it would scare the shit out of me whether it was armed or not.

Since they will almost certainly be networked into a larger system that fuses the data from multiple ships, more like a mobile SOSUS node.  Which is even cooler.

Which is why, in a real war, satellites are probably the first thing to go.

[grumbler]

It strikes me as basically a mobile sonar buoy. It basically just cruises about looking for hidden subs, probably has some capability of tracking them as well, presumably. But at the end of the day, it is a mobile sono-buoy. I think.

And if I was an enemy sub driver, it would scare the shit out of me whether it was armed or not.

Since they will almost certainly be networked into a larger system that fuses the data from multiple ships, more like a mobile SOSUS node.  Which is even cooler.

I don't believe that either of these ideas is quite correct.  The UUV will be capable of launching comm buoys that give contact information, but will not be continuously broadcasting or receiving.  They will follow the sub they find and periodically report position, course, speed, etc.

That's all just "as far as i know," however.  This is the second of the black programs I worked on to go white, but I've been outside the security on it for 20 years so only have heard rumors as updates.

[Berkut]

Is the reason to use comm buoys rather than direct commo just so they don't reveal their own existence/location? How stealthy are these?

[derspiess]

Now is it a self-christening ship?