Rise Of Robot Boats: How The Navy Might Hunt Sea Mines

LAS VEGAS: “Keeping the sailor out of the minefield,” the Navy’s new mantra for mine warfare, means sending the robots in. As part of an annual exercise in July called “Trident Warrior,” the fleet experimented with an unmanned ship developed by Textron subsidiary AAI and known blandly as the Common Unmanned Surface Vessel (CUSV). The…

Navy Puts More Bang Into Unmanned Fleet

WASHINGTON: It looks like aerial drones are not the only unmanned systems the Pentagon is interested in arming. The special warfare branch of the Navy’s expeditionary warfare division is eying plans to arm its small fleet of unmanned boats with an long-range missile, branch chief Capt. Evin Thompson said. The missile — known as the…