[The title
was written by my editor.]
The U.S. Navy’s “GhostSwimmer” drone made its testing debut last week at
Fort Story, Virginia.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
If one
were to create an aquatic drone, of course it would be modeled after a shark,
right? The U.S. Navy thinks so, but it also thinks crossing a shark with a tuna
makes for the best drone design. The result, the new “GhostSwimmer,” is the
latest in military drone creation. Measuring in at five feet long and weighing
100 pounds, the “silent” drone represents the first working prototype in the
Navy’s “Silent Nemo” program.
According
to a Navy press statement, the drone is much
quieter than anything relying on traditional propulsion via rotating
propellers. This is because the GhostSwimmer drone literally swims like a fish.
It moves through the water because of body movements and the array of fins with
which it is fitted. The result is a device that is much more difficult to
detect by sonar and is much more maneuverable.
“The idea
is to take millions of years of evolution,” said project manager Marine Corps
Captain Jerry Lademan. “This fish has perfected itself by swimming around the
water for millennia, so what we are trying to do with this project, [through]
the idea of biomimicry, is to reverse engineer what nature has already done to
optimize design for us.”
Developers
intend to apply the drone in furtive missions of searching for sea mines,
inspecting ship hulls, and conducting surveillance in areas not accessible by
larger craft. The drone can operate in as little as 10 inches of water and dive
to depths of up to 300 feet. It is equipped with a large battery for extended
mission service. The development took several months and cost $1 million, and
the drones are expected to be deployed next year.
Testing of
the drone took place last week at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little
Creek-Fort Story in Virginia, and a video
of the device is available online.
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