Trimaran SEA HUNTER Testbeds New Autonomous Technologies

In late November, Leidos announced it will be commencing operational testing of the technology demonstration vessel its is developing for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Testing of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), named Sea HUNTER in April, will take place off the southern Californian coast and follows on from perfrormance trials successfully completed this summer.

Sea HUNTER is a 132ft trimaran hull form vessel intended to demonstrate and evaluate technologies surrounding the concept of greater use of autonomy in anti-submarine warfare. Initial testing of its autonomy capability has been encouraging and at-sea testing of sensors and mission control hardware has already been conducted. Testing in a variety of mission scenarios will continue through the autumn of 2017 in a programme jointly funded by DARPA and the Office of Naval Research.

“Sea HUNTERis at the forefront of new autonomy technologies for the US military,” Mike Chagnon, president of the Leidos Advanced Solutions Group, said. “The operational testing is designed to showcase the unprecedented capabilities that this type of unmanned vessel could offer our military forces.”