Upward Falling Payload
 

Ares: Kraken Wakes - DARPA's Deep-Sea Sleepers

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/...t%20launch.jpg

The program is called Upward Falling Payload (UFP), and DARPA plans to brief industry at a proposers' day 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............

And the counter weapon...................RUST!

Thunderbirds are go!

No, no!! UFO - Skydiver

Go on - it's a spoof, innit?

OK, I'll 'go away' but don't call me Skydiver..............:hmm:

No probs Muff..

Looks more like VTTBOTS to me ...

http://www.cadolphmoores.com/storage...=1271252288828

If I were an American taxpayer I would feel distinctly uneasy about the funding directed towards an organisation who can so completely ignore the basic definitions of 'fall' all of which seem to have a downward component to them.

Upward Rising Payload would be more correct

BTW, great to see Skydiver even if that music is a disgraceful replacement for the original Barry Gray? soundtrack

and some childhood memories; Lt Gay Ellis getting changed. Gives that bint from BoB a run for her money.

Ah yes, the delightful Gabrielle Drake! Another firm favourite of mine...

Still looking good ...

http://www.spotlight.com/photo/~600x...se/1/F3994.jpg

http://www.scifibabes.co.uk/images/GeorginaMoon.jpg

Still the best use of a surplus RAF Firefighters Sting Vest I've ever seen :ok:

Blimey, some people have vivid imaginations - and to think they were paid to come up with this stuff.

Going back to the OP, ignoring any minor technical difficulties in achieving a viable capability and limitations in the number of systems deployed (it is a cost saving measure after all) this concept pre-supposes that military planners will be able to correctly identify potential areas of conflict perhaps decades in advance. Has this happened in the past?

Oh yeah - Europe, Mediterranean, Gulf, Jaapan, China Seas, Malaccas.

The choke and vital points haven't changed in centuries.