Compensate for the lack of Drone underwater is one of the future maritime surveillance

The Navy tested a stealth, 4 feet long autonomous underwater vehicle designed to blend in with the underwater life and run detection functions fighting fish-shaped, officials explained services.

The so-called underwater vehicle "biomimetic" is currently being developed as part of the Chief of Naval Operations rapid innovation in batteries, or CRIC - a special unit set up by the CNO Admiral Jonathan Greenert in 2012 to study the feasibility of turning around quickly technology commercially available for a naval military use.

"It mimics a fish. It looks like a fish. Robo-thon We call affectionately, but it's a drone (unmanned underwater vehicle). It has no propeller or a jet. It swim effectively turning his tail around, "said Captain Jim Loper, head concepts and innovation department, Navy warfare Development Command, Norfolk.

The robotic fish is very handy and can accelerate quickly to reach speeds up to 40 knots, Loper said. Is powered by the tail instead of a shaft or propeller allows it to remain stealth and energy efficient. The shark-like sensor is designed to carry a range of payloads acoustic sensors for underwater cameras, he said.

Built in Massachusetts by a company called Boston Engineering, the robot fish could be used for a range of missions, including the detection of underwater mines or extended from ships, ports and submarines.

"We imagery that can wander for days or weeks on a battery which allows it to maintain its position. This is a sensor, we can put out there that corresponds with the local life and say, "said Loper.

The drone is currently configured with a lithium ion battery and is designed so that its leading end remains fixed, in order to maximize the performance of the sensor.

"The fact that the front part of the animal is essentially fixed when swimming is important because when you ship sensors, you do not want anything that moves in all directions and spoil what you wear on board," Mark Smithers, vice president and chief technology engineering in Boston, said in a written statement.

Another test of the robotic fish is scheduled for next December, said John Hottendorf, CRIC program manager.

"This is an empty truck. You can put any type of sensor you want on it," said Hottendorf.

If development continues as planned, the robotic fish could end up being ready for deployment and operational use in the coming years, Hottendorf explained.

The drone robot fish could, at least in theory, work well with another project being developed by CRIC called suspended sub-Raw fiber, or SURF.

SURF involves the use of a cable fiber optic submarine used to create secure, seamless opportunities for point to point communication for surface features and submarines such as ships, submarines and underwater vehicles .

Marine developers with CRIC worked closely with laboratory scientists at Penn State, who have developed a special type of dynamic optical fiber cable.

"They developed a way to make the fiber cable neutral buoyancy or at least able to hang in the water column. The idea is to take the cable with a high data rate up to 10 gigabytes and be able to connect point to point zero detectability. The idea is to facilitate low observable communications so that you can have high speed communications without worrying about a radio transmission is detected, "said Loper.

Some initial tests SURF attached to a buoy off Virginia Beach evaluated the ability of the cable to withstand wind and waves and suspend in the water column above the bottom of the ocean without floating to the above, Loper said.

In theory, miles of fiber optic submarine waiting in the queue vessels may connect to the submarine in real time, allowing them to move seamlessly sensor data relevant combat, he added .

"In the future, when we get this thing going, you can attach a ship and a submarine. Submarine can go several miles from the road and do what it has to do with connecting cable there. entire surface and radar air from a vessel may return to a sub. Meanwhile, a submarine may be spending all its acoustic contacts to the ship, "at he says.

CRIC is to work with prototypes SURF time while exploring ways to further hardened cable for marine use.

"The environment of the ocean turned out to be a little more hostile than the original designers imagined. We want to send 40, 50 or 60 miles of cable, "said Loper.

In addition, the cable SURF could end up being attached to something like the drone robot fish, a scenario that would allow the probe underwater send images and data to a submarine or ship time real.

"You might have a sub with a drone as fish attached to a cable, which provides real-time information as opposed to current returning for download. This would be a mechanism to have contacts in real time with your drones "said Loper.

Overall, the robotic fish and SURF are examples of this kind of work explored by Greenert CRIC, an entity designed to run around promising technologies in a year or two for about $ 1 million to $ 2 million. CRIC is configured only to reap technological innovation and is not suitable to meet specific operational threat.

"With the CRIC, we do not necessarily meet the needs of the current fleet. The Committee as an organization is looking for opportunities. We are looking for something that is there now that we do not know, we still have. What we try to do is reuse technologies that are in the business world, "said Loper.