By James Nye
Daily Mail Online
Daily Mail Online
Unmanned: This time lapse photographic series reveals how the Sea Robin system surfaces to unleash the XFC unmanned aircraft
The U.S. Navy has successfully launched an unmanned aerial drone from a submerged submarine for the first time – signaling a significant escalation in the military’s UAV capabilities.
Six-years in the planning, the all electric drone is fired from the submarine’s torpedo tube in a specially customized Tomahawk cruise missile casing dubbed a ‘Sea Robin’.
Once the Sea Robin reaches the surface, it bobs on the surface resembling a buoy – only to spring open to allow the UAV to be electrically ejected skywards and extend its folded wings outwards and take flight.
Designed and constructed by the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the submarine test of the eXperimental Fuel Cell Unmanned Aerial System (XFC) was conducted in August off the coast of the Bahamas.
Launched from the Los-Angeles class nuclear powered attack submarine USS Providence, the Sea Robin drone system is able to be deployed to any submarine or surface ship in the navy with cruise missile capability without modifications to the boats.
Sea Robin: The system took six-years to perfect and this zoomed-in picture reveals how the XFC unmanned aircraft is vertically launched
The XFC contains a fuel cell that allows it stay in the sky for more than six hours and flies at low altitude and is designed for reconnaissance and surveillance missions – but armed versions are only a matter of time.
During the first test flight, after the Sea Robin opened, the XFC successfully flew and beamed back video feed to USS Providence for hours before it returned to the Naval Sea Systems Command Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), on Andros Island in the Bahamas.
The Launch Canister System (LCS), also known as Sea Robin, shoots to the surface tethered by fiber optic cables. Once afloat, the Sea Robin would deploy the eXperiemental Fuel Cell (XFC) (pictured)– a stealthy foldable, fuel-powered UAV
‘This six-year effort represents the best in collaboration of a Navy laboratory and industry to produce a technology that meets the needs of the special operations community,’ said Dr. Warren Schultz, program developer and manager, NRL.
‘The creativity and resourcefulness brought to this project by a unique team of scientists and engineers represents an unprecedented paradigm shift in UAV propulsion and launch systems.’
The announcement of this flight comes as the public begin to question the ethics and future of the military’s use of drones.
Indeed, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos declared this week that one day he hopes his company will begin delivery packages across the United States by drones instead of by ground delivery services.
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