U.S. military's robotic unmanned submarine hunter completes first tests at sea

An unmanned robotic ship designed to help the U.S. military hunt enemy submarines has completed its first tests at sea. The 132-foot "Sea Hunter" unmanned surface vessel (USV) is still getting its figurative sea legs, but the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) performance tests off the coast of San Diego have steered the project on a course to enter the U.S. Navy's fleet by 2018. The Sea Hunter "surpassed all performance objectives for speed, maneuverability, stability, sea keeping, acceleration/deceleration ,and fuel consumption," say officials at Leidos, the company developing the Sea Hunter.