The concept of a small flying submarine was first popularized in the 1960's movie and television program, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea. DARPA has been working to make flying submarines a reality as well as super-fast miniature submarines.
Credit: Wikipedia
Super-Fast Submerged Transport
The Super-Fast Submerged Transport (Underwater Express) program will explore the application of supercavitation technology to underwater vehicles, enabling high speed transport of personnel and/or supplies. The inherent advantages of traveling underwater are: the ability to transit undetected, no radar or visible signature, and avoidance of rough sea conditions that may limit or deny mission execution.
Supercavitation places the vehicle inside a cavity where vapor replaces the water, and drag due to fluid viscosity is reduced by orders of magnitude, thus reducing the power requirement dramatically.
This program will use modeling, simulation, experiments and testing to develop the understanding of the physical phenomena associated with supercavitation and the application to underwater vehicles. Innovative failsafe controls will be required for stability and maneuverability at speed. The program will culminate in an at-sea demonstration of a submerged unmanned vehicle capable of supercavitating operations and autonomous maneuvering.
The Very High Speed Vessel (VHSV) program is developing a small tactical surface vessel capable of protecting high value naval vessels in contested littoral environments. The program will evaluate tactical mobility, mission endurance, lethality, and survivability that is well beyond that of any current or proposed littoral warfare platform.
The vessel will be designed to operate as an unmanned naval combat system with an integrated control system and weapons suite which will be optimized to defend against irregular naval warfare threats such as fast inshore attack crafts, high speed swarming combatant boats, and conventional diesel submarines operating in shallow coastal waters. The VHSV system will leverage emerging developments in reconfigurable hull forms, fluid drag reduction, hybrid naval propulsion design, and dynamic control in fully cavitated flow to develop a vessel with significantly superior maximum speed, endurance, and sea keeping in elevated sea states.
FY 2010 Accomplishments:
Completed design, fabrication and component testing of a scaled vehicle.
Analyzed vehicle performance for speed, power and stability.
Completed development of vehicle control system.
Modified vehicle systems for at-sea testing series based on testing results.
FY 2011 Plans:
Complete at-sea testing of a scaled vehicle.
Analyze vehicle performance for speed, power and stability.
Submersible Aircraft
This program will combine the speed and range of an airborne platform with the stealth of an underwater vehicle by developing a vessel that can both fly and submerge. The program will exploit lightweight materials, unique dynamic structures and advanced propulsion systems to overcome the technical barriers to achieving this capability.
If successful, the program will enable insertion and extraction of special operations and expeditionary forces at greater ranges, and higher speeds in locations not previously accessible with minimal direct support from additional military assets. The program goals are to demonstrate a vessel capable of multimodal operations (airborne, surface, and submerged) and that can easily transition between these modes.
FY 2010 Accomplishments:
Initiated concept design studies and feasibility analysis in order to quantify extent of possible operational envelope.
Began to identify key technology limitations and performance objectives that need to be overcome in order to achieve concept design.
FY 2011 Plans:
Complete developmental activities including modeling and experiments, demonstrating technologies, and approaches that can overcome the identified performance objectives.
Complete objective system design based on the results of developmental activities, providing an accurate projection of the systems operational envelope.
Whether these programs will continue appears questionable as the 2012 DARPA budget shows no funding for these two programs.
Super-Fast Submerged Transport
The Super-Fast Submerged Transport (Underwater Express) program will explore the application of supercavitation technology to underwater vehicles, enabling high speed transport of personnel and/or supplies. The inherent advantages of traveling underwater are: the ability to transit undetected, no radar or visible signature, and avoidance of rough sea conditions that may limit or deny mission execution.
Supercavitation places the vehicle inside a cavity where vapor replaces the water, and drag due to fluid viscosity is reduced by orders of magnitude, thus reducing the power requirement dramatically.
This program will use modeling, simulation, experiments and testing to develop the understanding of the physical phenomena associated with supercavitation and the application to underwater vehicles. Innovative failsafe controls will be required for stability and maneuverability at speed. The program will culminate in an at-sea demonstration of a submerged unmanned vehicle capable of supercavitating operations and autonomous maneuvering.
The Very High Speed Vessel (VHSV) program is developing a small tactical surface vessel capable of protecting high value naval vessels in contested littoral environments. The program will evaluate tactical mobility, mission endurance, lethality, and survivability that is well beyond that of any current or proposed littoral warfare platform.
The vessel will be designed to operate as an unmanned naval combat system with an integrated control system and weapons suite which will be optimized to defend against irregular naval warfare threats such as fast inshore attack crafts, high speed swarming combatant boats, and conventional diesel submarines operating in shallow coastal waters. The VHSV system will leverage emerging developments in reconfigurable hull forms, fluid drag reduction, hybrid naval propulsion design, and dynamic control in fully cavitated flow to develop a vessel with significantly superior maximum speed, endurance, and sea keeping in elevated sea states.
FY 2010 Accomplishments:
Completed design, fabrication and component testing of a scaled vehicle.
Analyzed vehicle performance for speed, power and stability.
Completed development of vehicle control system.
Modified vehicle systems for at-sea testing series based on testing results.
FY 2011 Plans:
Complete at-sea testing of a scaled vehicle.
Analyze vehicle performance for speed, power and stability.
Submersible Aircraft
This program will combine the speed and range of an airborne platform with the stealth of an underwater vehicle by developing a vessel that can both fly and submerge. The program will exploit lightweight materials, unique dynamic structures and advanced propulsion systems to overcome the technical barriers to achieving this capability.
If successful, the program will enable insertion and extraction of special operations and expeditionary forces at greater ranges, and higher speeds in locations not previously accessible with minimal direct support from additional military assets. The program goals are to demonstrate a vessel capable of multimodal operations (airborne, surface, and submerged) and that can easily transition between these modes.
FY 2010 Accomplishments:
Initiated concept design studies and feasibility analysis in order to quantify extent of possible operational envelope.
Began to identify key technology limitations and performance objectives that need to be overcome in order to achieve concept design.
FY 2011 Plans:
Complete developmental activities including modeling and experiments, demonstrating technologies, and approaches that can overcome the identified performance objectives.
Complete objective system design based on the results of developmental activities, providing an accurate projection of the systems operational envelope.
Whether these programs will continue appears questionable as the 2012 DARPA budget shows no funding for these two programs.
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