Navy official calls for rapid deployment of unmanned vessels

[The Straight Story]

Navy official calls for rapid deployment of unmanned vessels
By Megan Scully CongressDaily March 4, 2010

Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughead said he expects to take unmanned underwater vehicles from experimentation to routine deployments by the end of the decade, boosting the Navy's ability to detect mines, survey coastlines and conduct other sea missions.

Roughead's comments dovetail with findings in the Pentagon's recently released Quadrennial Defense Review of military capabilities and requirements, which urges the Navy to pursue crewless subsurface ships as the military continues to procure and use unmanned aerial vehicles in record numbers.

"I think that unmanned underwater vehicles have potentially greater value than maybe even ... the aerial vehicles; I submit that the underwater is more stressing, it's harder" on people than flight, Roughead said in an interview at the Pentagon this week. "And therefore I think the ability to use underwater vehicles can give you, I think, more of a payback than an aerial vehicle can."


The Navy, which has been experimenting with UUV technologies, would likely deploy the vessels for the same types of intelligence gathering and reconnaissance missions that have made UAVs so successful in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sensors, Roughead said, can be integrated into a network, dormant for long periods of time and operate at greater depths than manned systems -- all major pluses for the fleet. "I think there's huge value," the chief said.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44718&oref=todaysnews

[old mark]

1. The Army is also developing unmanned ground vehicles used for recon and

patrolling, capable of learning and decision making and working independently of human controllers. Some of them are armed. The can remain on patrol for months without relief.

mark

[Blue_Tires]

2. remote controlled subs?

what fun is that going to be??