All aboard the Sea Train!
Nathan Strout
1 day ago
DARPA's Sea Train concept hopes to enable a convoy of medium-sized unmanned vessels to travel across the ocean without refueling, before splitting up to conduct independent operations. (Courtesy of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
Imagine the following scenario.
Four medium-sized U.S. Navy vessels depart from a port along the United States’ coast. There’s no crew aboard any of them.
About 15 nautical miles off the coast, the four vessels rendezvous, autonomously arranging themselves in a line. Using custom mechanisms, they attach to each other to form a train, except they’re in the water and there’s no railroad to guide them. In this configuration the vessels travel 6,500 nautical miles across the open ocean to Southeast Asia. But as they approach their destination, they disconnect, splitting up as each unmanned ship goes its own way to conduct independent operations, such as collecting data with a variety of onboard sensors.
Once those operations are complete, the four reunite, form a train and make the return journey home.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2020/06/01/all-aboard-the-sea-train/
