Novel Sensing and Detection

“It’s my privilege and honor to christen thee Sea Hunter!” DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar proclaimed, capping the christening ceremony last week for the technology demonstration vessel developed and built through the Agency’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program. She then broke a ceremonial “champagne” bottle (the contents were non-alcoholic) against the bow of the prototype ship, in front of approximately 100 guests, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work and senior U.S. Navy and government officials.

DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring a two-day Proposers Day, June 22-23, to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of the DSO Office-wide Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): http://go.usa.gov/cStaQ. Attendees may register to attend in person or via webinar.

DARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program has developed and built a technology demonstration vessel that is currently undergoing open-water testing off the coast of California and recently set sail with its first payload: a prototype of a low-cost, elevated sensor mast developed through the Agency’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) research effort.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring a two-day Proposers Day event to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of the DSO Office-wide Broad Agency Announcement (BAA): http://go.usa.gov/cStaQ. The event will be held at the DARPA, 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, VA 22203 on June 22-23, 2016, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Advance registration is required; attendees may attend in person or participate via webinar.

The quiet submarine is an asymmetric threat in terms of its cost and consequential growth in numbers relative to our legacy maritime platforms. In addition, these submarines have trended toward lower acoustic signature levels and have grown in lethality. The Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting (DASH) program intends to reverse the asymmetric advantage of this threat through the development of advanced standoff sensing from unmanned systems.