Unmanned U.S. frigates to stalk submarines (w/ Video)

[BobH]

Perhaps I am missing the point here but I see two problems with unmanned vessels.

1. We all know that all vessels, even narrow boats on England's canals, need maintenance and repair especially when used continuously or in harsh conditions.

2. Both surface and airborne assets can only operate via radio or similar communication systems. All very well in a Stan or local areas against irregular forces but in a major conflict where the enemy has the recourse to interference and electrical storms, hacking into computer systems to disrupt or or even take over command then what at point do we put a majority of our assets into unmanned craft?.

Do we envisage a world where a convoy of Merchant manned or unmanned ships are escorted by unmanned AA and AS assets and wander across the Atlantic and all are so reliable nothingh will break down even on the first trip. Yeah right.

[Fingers]

It was very often the case when I was serving that the D/E boat very easily gave the chasing/searching frigate the slip.If they have active sonar deployed the boat usually hears them ages before they are in range.Nothing will be simpler than dodging the search and then the hunter becomes the hunted if the boat is prepared to give its presence away.

[xbilgerat]

No doubt provision has been made or will be made for the crewless frigates to differentiate between friend and foe or perhaps the idea was conceived with the situation where the good guys have no D/E boats. Another thought, will the frigate be programmed to destroy in addition to finding? From a personal point of view it seems rather freaky to have a vessel with no human content, a ship without a soul? No messdecks or familiar sounds of life, hard to imagine.

[Fingers]

As I replied on that site.   

The Navy should considered using the train dolphin for shadowing D/E subs similar to dolphins used for finding buried mines

When would the highly trained Dolphin rest and find food?A novel idea but fraught with problems so a non-runner I'm afraid.

[Gannet]

As I replied on that site.   

The Navy should considered using the train dolphin for shadowing D/E subs similar to dolphins used for finding buried mines

[xbilgerat]

Another robot to enter the battle field this time at sea.Will future wars be fought like a computer game? With unmanned aircraft already proving their worth in Afghanistan how will the unmanned frigates fare with D/E submarines. The big advantage will be that there will no longer be extended periods at sea for any crew but the big question pops up what about the nukes? No doubt that will be the next step.

"(PhysOrg.com) -- In the U.S. the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is planning to introduce unmanned frigates for long missions shadowing diesel-electric submarines."

http://www.physorg.com/news184487623.html