DARPA unveils plans for underwater drone network

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has revealed development plans of submerged unmanned platforms that can deploy payloads in international water threat response situations, reported Wired's Danger Room. The system, dubbed Hydra, would create an undersea network of unmanned platforms to compliment manned vessels, ultimately increasing the capability and speed of the Navy.

Hydra aims to be a cost-cutting, highly mobile system that could be tailored to each mission with an integrated air, surface, and water communications systems. The payloads would provide key intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and mine counter-measure capabilities.

"An unmanned technology infrastructure staged below the ocean's surface could relieve some of that resource strain and expand military capabilities in this increasingly challenging space," said Scott Littlefield, DARPA program manager, in a statement.

DARPA hosted a Proposers' Day on Aug. 5 to gather ideas and technical proposals for how to best develop the Hydra system.