Posted on 02/19/2019 11:07:58 AM PST by blam
The Navy is bulking up its fleet of autonomous robot vessels with the purchase of a cadre of four of Boeing's extremely large and incredibly grandiose unmanned Orca submarines.
On Feb. 13, the Navy awarded Boeing a $43 million contract to produce four of the 51-foot Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) that are capable of traveling some 6,500 nautical miles unaided, the US Naval Institute reported.
According to USNI, the Navy could potentially deploy the Orcas from existing vessels to conduct "mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, electronic warfare and strike missions."
But as Popular Mechanics points out, the Orca's modular design and relatively inexpensive price tag make the robo-subs a potential game-changer for a Navy that's struggling to grow to 335 hulls:
Orca could even pack a Mk. 46 lightweight torpedo to take a shot at an enemy sub itself. It could also carry heavier Mk. 48 heavyweight torpedoes to attack surface ships, or even conceivably anti-ship missiles. Orca could drop off cargos on the seabed, detect, or even lay mines. The modular hardware payload system and open architecture software ensures Orca could be rapidly configured based on need.
This sort of versatility in a single, low-cost package is fairly unheard of in military spending. The nearest rough equivalent is the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship, which costs $584 million each and has a crew of 40. While LCS is faster, has the benefit of an onboard crew, and carries a larger payload, Orca is autonomous—and cheaper by orders of magnitude.
The purchase comes amid a push into autonomous vessels for the Navy, and not just because of President Donald Trump's newfound focus on artificial intelligence.
An Echo Voyager fully autonomous extra large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUUV) class UUV. Boeing
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“Or,,,”
Antifa
Pussy Hats, thousand upon thousands of pussy hats
Hillary
The faculty at every Ivy League school
“Robots and automation don’t need to be fed or trained- - “
Until their control and/or navigation systems are jammed. Then they become useless.
Horse term.
The phrase is chomping at the bit
If you can’t fish out of it and catch a big bass what good it is?
Droned submarines.
Cool
you’d need a second one to carry the ammo
Have an Orca appear damaged, "snatchable" near or on the surface.
Pirates approach
Thermonuclear self destruct.
Now all of them will be actively avoided.
Depends on neighborhood.
What a charming little drone.
Is that a mini gun on the bottom?
Are they the Flipper class?
“Depends on neighborhood.”
Which country?
(Fornt-ing) To faunt, is to bite your checks and try and smile, resulting in what is uncommonly know as faunting.
LOL! Urban dictionary.
Does not match your original use of the ‘word’.
Of corse it does but more importantly since you knew already why question the comment?
“Of corse it does but more importantly since you knew already why question the comment? “
ROTFLMAO!
The only use of the word you could find is in a poorly written urban dictionary definition of fornting.
I saw this scenario on an Episode of Voyage To The Bottom Of Sea.
It didn’t go well for the Crew of the USOS Seaview.
Ok I sometimes recall that like Mark Twain I remember everything now, some of it is even true. The word I was searching for was Faunching. My dictionary didn't really like either word.
Faunching at the Bit Posted by Grant Barrett on December 8, 2012 · Add Comment What’s the difference between champing at the bit and faunching at the bit? Champing, or chomping, means you’re pumped up and ready to go, while faunching — more common in the Southwest — implies more anger and frustration.Try this link.
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