Unmanned aircraft carrier that travels beneath the waves may be in the Navy's future

Posted by John Keller

THE MIL & AERO BLOG, 23 July 2013. Imagine a big unmanned submarine designed to operate covertly for long periods, lurking silently off an enemy's shore. At a command from military leaders, this submersible mothership ejects pods that float to the surface and launch surveillance unmanned aircraft in all directions. At the same time, small unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) deploy from docks hidden in the big submarine's belly on secret reconnaissance missions of the enemy's submarine forces, shipping activity, and overall maritime readiness.

This is the vision of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and its upcoming Hydra program to design an unmanned submarine mothership able to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), UUVs, and perhaps even unmanned surface vessels (USVs) for secret intelligence missions off sensitive coasts.

The unmanned aircraft might be relatively small and inexpensive models designed for one-way missions, as the submarine mothership might not be able to recover them. Not so, however, with the vessel's flotilla of UUVs.

The DARPA Hydra vehicle will have docking facilities to recover its UUVs and recharge them for their next missions. These small UUVs will glide out from the mothership's docking stations to take high-resolution images and video of an enemy's port facilities. Once finished, these UUVs will return to the mothership where they will dock, recharge their batteries, and download their intelligence information for the mothership for transmitting covertly back to U.S. and allied command authorities.

Related stories -- DARPA considers unmanned submersible mothership designed to deploy UAVs and UUVs -- Long-endurance unmanned submarine development heats up with propulsion contract to General Atomics -- Navy asks industry to develop large unmanned submarine able to operate independently for more than two months.

It's not clear yet exactly what the DARPA Hydra vehicle would look like, or how its unmanned vehicle payloads would appear. Devising a design for the mothership and its unmanned vehicles is part of the initial phases of the Hydra program, which is likely to get underway next month.

The program will begin defining the roles of the Hydra mothership, define key enabling technologies, and finally demonstrate a prototype. The program's contractors will concentrate on technical areas like a ballast system, propulsion for extended undersea operations, covert communications for instructions and data, command and control for remote and autonomous operation, and unmanned vehicle payloads.

DARPA will brief industry on the program on 5 Aug. in Laurel, Md. Most briefings will be open, but special presentations classified secret will be available for qualified attendees with the proper security clearances.

Looks like an unmanned aircraft carrier that travels under the water may be in the U.S. Navy's future.