As the Pentagon prepares to
face enemies ranging from rival nations to drug smugglers, it’s introducing
something new: A 130-foot drone sea craft that could hunt for submarines and
mines at sea. Senior defense officials christened Thursday a 130-foot unmanned
trimaran in Portland, Ore.
The oddly shaped ship is called Sea Hunter and
is the centrepiece of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned
Vessel (ACTUV) program developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA).
The christening marks a new
step for the program, which enters testing this summer off the coast of San
Diego and is managed jointly with the Office of Naval Research.