The Future of Defence - GhostSwimmer

The idea of military drones - remotely controlled or autonomous vehicles and weapons - is nothing new. As early as the First World War, attempts were made to mate up the new technologies of aircraft and radio to create remotely piloted bombs. In the interwar period, remotely piloted aircraft were used for target practice. The Second World War saw the dawn of the cruise missile, with the German V-1, as well as remotely controlled ground vehicles (the German Goliath demolition vehicle) and aircraft for offensive purposes, such as Operation Aphrodite, in which the US experimented with retrofitting worn out bombers as remotely piloted bombs. None of these programs were very successful, diverting resources that could have been used more profitably on less "cutting edge' technologies. However, they did point the way to the future.

During the Cold War, a whole host of remote vehicles were developed, including cruise missiles (e.g., the Tomahawk), recon drones like the Vietnam-era Lightning Bug, remotely operated underwater vehicles for training, mine clearance and recovery operations, remotely operated bomb disposal robots and other, similar systems. With the exception of cruise missiles, what distinguished these systems was their non-lethal usage.

This changed with the advent of systems like the Predator and Reaper. As computer technology has advanced, there has been an increasing amount of interest in autonomous systems as opposed to remotely operated vehicles (although many questions have been raised about the wisdom and ethics of this; check the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots for some of the arguments against). Finally, work is being done a wide variety of body types, from insect sized (and inspired) microbots to aquatic systems that take their design from fish and sharks. One of these is the GhostSwimmer.

The drone uses the streamlined shape of a shark and propels itself with its tail. The GhostSwimmer can operate either tethered to a laptop or autonomously, receiving mission updates wirelessly. Assuming it moves forward from the testing phase to some sort of future production model, it will join other aquatic drones to replace the dolphins and other marine animals the US Navy has used for mine clearance and harbor protection. Also, unlike the marine animals which require significant amounts of care and can only be deployed by specialized units, UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles) can be used by any ship. Also, unlike marine animals, UUVs can be programed (or controlled) to distinguish between friendly and hostile forces, turning drones like the GhostSwimmer into potent weapons. We could soon see a Navy consisting of a small number of large, manned platforms (i.e., ships) serving as hosts to hundreds of drones, used in the air, on the surface, and underwater. This may also help us get past the increasing expense of manned platforms, allowing us to concentrate on a few highly survivable ships using swarms of drones for offensive and defensive operations.

This is the future of the US military; an arsenal of robots, precision strike weapons and a comparative small number of battle managers and special forces operators for environments where you need a person with a gun.

Source: Wired, Naval-Technology.com