US Targets Small Ships As Drone Bases

The US military has proven to be a premier worldwide fighting force, or at least that is what popular culture depicts, and here is another creative approach to warfare in the seven seas. They intend to make use of fleets of tiny ships which will perform as platforms for unmanned aircraft (aka drones) to land and take off, now how about that? According to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), this solution is a possibility since they need to increase their airborne “surveillance and reconnaissance” capabilities

Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from land is easy, but from the sea? That could prove to be quite a headache, considering the need to refuel in between missions, and currently can only be launched from large aircraft carriers that possess long runways. The new project has been called Tern (Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node), which is definitely apt considering there is a sea-bird of the same name which is famous for its endurance.

Considering approximately 98% of the world’s land area is within 900 nautical miles of ocean coastlines, Darpa predicts that more conflicts will be fought out at sea in the future.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Military
Tags: darpa, Drones, navy