The Office of Naval Research (ONR) accomplished a full autonomous navigation of Sea Hunter, medium displacement unmanned surface vessel. Sea Hunter autonomously navigated from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and returned without crew onboard, except few boardings by personnel from an escort vessel to check electrical and propulsion systems.
Mainly, the 132-foot trimaran was designed and constructed by Leidos. The voyage was part of a trial that has been going from 2016.
Sea Hunter is scheduled to keep its long duration and mission package testing throughout 2019.
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According to Leidos, Sea Hunter is able to shadow diesel-electric submarines for months, not needing human contact, across thousands of miles of ocean and chase them out of strategic waters.
Moreover, cheap and virtually silent diesel-electric submarines are difficult to keep track of and are thought to be one of the key threats to naval and commercial shipping operations.
Costing around $200-300 million, they are available to smaller or more volatile nations.
ONR has already awarded Leidos with $43.5 million contract to develop Sea Hunter II, which is now being built in Mississippi.
Concluding, Leidos is to design, construct and trial an acoustic device countermeasure (ADC) called the ADC MK5 – a three-inch diameter device launched from submarines to defend against incoming torpedoes. The project is part of the Navy’s Next Generation Countermeasure program to replace existing ADC MK3 systems with newer technologies. Work will be performed in Washington, Northern Virginia, Ohio, California and Florida.
