DARPA, ONR To Commence Open-Water Testing Of Unmanned Anti-Submarine Warfare Ship

The US Office of Naval Research and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will soon commence open-water testing of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), able to traverse thousands of kilometres for months at a time without a single crew member aboard.

ACTUV is a 130-foot twin-screw trimaran, designed for enhanced stability in all kinds of weather. It has a number of unusual features because it does not need to accommodate people. For example, interior spaces are accessible for maintenance but aren’t designed to support a permanent crew.

Through at-sea testing on a surrogate vessel, ACTUV’s autonomy suite has proven capable of operating the ship in compliance with maritime laws and conventions for safe navigation—including International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, or COLREGS. ACTUV accomplishes this feat through advanced software and hardware that serve as automated lookouts, enabling the ship to operate safely near manned maritime vessels in all weather and traffic conditions, day or night.

ACTUV is designed to normally operate under sparse remote supervisory control but can also serve as a remotely piloted vessel, should the mission or specific circumstances require it. In either case, it would operate at a fraction of the cost of manned vessels that are today deployed for similar missions.

In September 2014, DARPA signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Office of Naval Research to jointly fund an extended test phase of an ACTUV prototype. DARPA will collaborate with ONR to fully test the capabilities of the vessel and several innovative payloads during open-water testing scheduled to begin this summer off the California coast after preliminary checkout and movement to San Diego. Pending the results of those tests, the program could transition to the U.S. Navy by 2018.

“The Memorandum of Agreement is just one example of the strong relationship that exists between DARPA and the Office of Naval Research, where we are working together on a number of important projects,” said Brad Tousley, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, which oversees ACTUV. “We look forward to strengthening and extending the relationship with ONR as we start testing ACTUV in San Diego later this spring and work jointly toward providing pivotal new capabilities for the Navy”.