ORAC
13th Jan 2013, 09:26
Ares: Kraken Wakes - DARPA's Deep-Sea Sleepers (http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3acfab83eb-e8c0-48c7-8fd6-0ac6a129d9d1)
Arguing it is costly and complex to send large numbers of warships to forward operating areas - and that the energy and logistics needed to deploy lower-cost unmanned systems over oceanic distances limits their usefulness - DARPA has come with another idea. That idea is to pre-deploy "deep-ocean nodes" in forward areas years in advance. These would be commanded from a safe stand-off distance to launch to the surface and release waterborne or airborne unmanned systems to disperse and provide ISR or "non-lethal effects" over a wide area in contested environments.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Portals/AWeek/Ares/GrahamW/LMSW%20Cormorant%20launch.jpg
The program is called Upward Falling Payload (UFP), and DARPA plans to brief industry at a proposers' day (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1e555e8ec3787f793fa4d34810159ac8&tab=core&_cview=0) on Jan 25 in Washington, DC.
The UFP system would, the notice says, comprise three elements: "The ‘payload' which executes waterborne or airborne applications after being deployed to the surface; the UFP ‘riser' which provides pressure-tolerant encapsulation and launch (ascent) of the payload; and the communications which triggers the UFP riser to launch."
DARPA plans a multi-phase effort to demonstrate the UFP systems. Details are sparse, but the program sounds like it could build on previous efforts such as Lockheed Martin Skunk Work's Cormorant submarine-launched UAV (pictured above), which was cancelled in 2008. Cormorant was to be a high-performance UAV, but there has been other work on the encapsulated, underwater launch of small UAVs............
Arguing it is costly and complex to send large numbers of warships to forward operating areas - and that the energy and logistics needed to deploy lower-cost unmanned systems over oceanic distances limits their usefulness - DARPA has come with another idea. That idea is to pre-deploy "deep-ocean nodes" in forward areas years in advance. These would be commanded from a safe stand-off distance to launch to the surface and release waterborne or airborne unmanned systems to disperse and provide ISR or "non-lethal effects" over a wide area in contested environments.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Portals/AWeek/Ares/GrahamW/LMSW%20Cormorant%20launch.jpg
The program is called Upward Falling Payload (UFP), and DARPA plans to brief industry at a proposers' day (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1e555e8ec3787f793fa4d34810159ac8&tab=core&_cview=0) on Jan 25 in Washington, DC.
The UFP system would, the notice says, comprise three elements: "The ‘payload' which executes waterborne or airborne applications after being deployed to the surface; the UFP ‘riser' which provides pressure-tolerant encapsulation and launch (ascent) of the payload; and the communications which triggers the UFP riser to launch."
DARPA plans a multi-phase effort to demonstrate the UFP systems. Details are sparse, but the program sounds like it could build on previous efforts such as Lockheed Martin Skunk Work's Cormorant submarine-launched UAV (pictured above), which was cancelled in 2008. Cormorant was to be a high-performance UAV, but there has been other work on the encapsulated, underwater launch of small UAVs............