The Department of Defence’s Silicon Valley-based accelerator, the
Defence Innovation Unit Experimental, or DUIx, announced on its website that it
is accepting design proposals for an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be
launched from underwater.
The drone should be able to travel through a column
of water to the surface; orient itself; launch; and transition to flight, DUIx
said. The government is willing to provide an underwater launcher already in
use for another drone, but competitors are also welcome to submit their own
launcher designs.
The US Navy already launches a variant of
AeroVironment’s Switchblade drone from underwater, called the Blackwing. That
drone launches from submerged attack and guided missile submarines, as well as
unmanned underwater vehicles. It often serves as a communications hub and an
observation platform to coordinate attacks.
DUIx wants a drone that can provide video, carry
additional sensors and fly for more than one hour, up to a range of 30 miles
away – specifications similar to AeroVironment’s Blackwing. Communications to
and from the UAV must be secured with AES-256 bit encryption.
The agency wants the UAV to be easy to fly with
controls that are similar to commercially available drone controls. It should
also be able to autonomously fly with limited or no communications from a human
controller.
The winning design could result in the award of a
follow-on production contract, after additional prototyping efforts, DUIx said.
(Evangle Luo of TTFLY shared with you)
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