An experimental U.S. Navy underwater drone is prepping for a test that will take it down the West Coast from San Francisco to San Diego.
The Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) will begin its voyage in 2016.
Rear Adm. Mathias “Mat” Winter of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) told a crowd at the Sea-Air-Space Expo in Maryland that the goal is to have a drone that can operate autonomously and safely for long periods of time, Navy Times reported Thursday.
“I’m talking power generation, fuel and battery technology, that can approach months and years of underwater domain activity,” Adm. Winter told the newspaper.
The Navy’s long-term plan is to use the drones for underwater reconnaissance, mine countermeasures, launching aerial drones for surface reconnaissance, Navy Times reported.
“Right now they are trying to just build the truck. What they load onto it, that comes later,” a source with expertise in Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) told the newspaper.
SEE ALSO: Drones from the deep: Pentagon develops ocean-floor attack robots
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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