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DARPA looking to create undersea drones named after a sea monster

Josh Peterson Contributor
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As a response to budget cuts affecting the U.S. military, a U.S. agency is proposing that the Navy consider adding seaborne drones to its arsenal to deal with threats in international waters.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to develop an undersea network of drones to augment the capabilities of the U.S. Navy, Wired reports.

The system — named Hydra, after the mythological many-headed sea-monster — would be deployed in international waters by the Navy for weeks or months, and would be a way to relieve “resource strain,” states DARPA program manager Scott Littlefield, as well as extend military capabilities.

The Hydra could be deployed from aircraft, ships, or submarines.

“Proposals are due October 22, but it may well be 2018 before Hydra lands in the ocean,” Wired reports.

In January, the agency announced that it wanted to store drones at the bottom of the sea in pressurized capsules as part of a strategy to provide support for the U.S. military anywhere in the world.

The systems, called the Upwards Falling Payloads (UFPs) program, could hibernate in the deep sea for years and be deployed when needed.

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Josh Peterson