Not a single human aboard US ship that hunts subs

TIMESLIVE

The autonomous ship "Sea Hunter", developed by DARPA, is shown docked in Portland, Oregon after its christening ceremony April 7, 2016.
Image by: STEVE DIPAOLA / REUTERS

The US military has begun tests on the world's largest unmanned ship, a self-driving 40m vessel that can hunt down enemy submarines without a single sailor at the helm.

 

Dubbed the "Sea Hunter", the vessel was developed by the Pentagon's research wing, and cost about $20-million to build.
It has already been hailed as the military equivalent of Google's self-driving cars and can sail on its own for up to three months.
This week's tests focus on the ship's ability to detect other vessels and avoid collisions with them. Though the test version of Sea Hunter uses human controllers, the finished product will be able to carry out naval operations without any crew members on board.
The ship does not even need to be remotely controlled, and instead relies on its own AI system which, takes commands at "mission level".
The US Navy's mission command tells the ship where to go, and it then charts its own course to an "area of uncertainty", which may contain enemy submarines.
The unmanned ship then relies on its short-range radar to detect diesel-electric submarines.
The tests on the unmanned ship come amid heightened tensions between the US and China, as well as Russia.
China's rapid naval expansion in the South China Sea is a source of major concern for the US.