Gradually, more and more powers will be transferred to autonomous vehicles. This is a natural process that pushes the development of science and technology, as well as the desire to save on maintenance personnel. This replacement is especially valuable when it comes to military operations. But it is better to start the robotization of military service from small things, for example, from autonomous support vessels.
Recently the US Department of Defense a multi-year contract with the Boston company Sea Machines Robotics for the development of an autonomous offshore barge for refueling and re-arming aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing. We are talking not only about drones, but also, or, above all, about helicopters and convertiplanes, the coverage area of ββ\uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbwhich can be significantly expanded by autonomous marine tankers.
In the first phase, Sea Machines Robotics will create a modular support vessel control system. A demonstration of the system is scheduled for the end of this year. It will be deployed on one of the offshore commercial freight barges. The demonstration barge and associated infrastructure will be provided by the shipping operator FOSS Maritime. She will subsequently design the means of providing autonomous supply vessels, including ground (berthing) infrastructure.
The first autonomous supply vessels will be modern-built robotic barges or, to put it simply, unmanned commercial vessels converted to automatic control. In parallel, the development of robotic ships initially designed for unmanned operations will be carried out, which will obviously save space for additional cargo and make such ships less vulnerable to surface targets.
During the Second World War, tankers played a significant role in expanding the scope of German submarines. But these were actually suicide bombers who hung out in the ocean on a barrel of fuel. Since then, progress in the means of protection and weapons has stepped far forward, but the tanker, as it was a powder keg, has remained so. And the autonomy of supply ships is an extremely desirable thing in the troops.
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Source: 3dnews.ru