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US increases its underwater drones budget

14 March 2014, 04:29 -- The Pentagon is eager to increase its spending for underwater drones. This is a part of the US plan to move away from ground wars in the Middle East to the Pacific.

The Pentagon is searching for ways of increasing its seaborne drones and surveillance technologies budgets. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is intensifying its research on several programs. One of them is the Hydra program, which is an underwater carrier of unmanned submarines and aerial drones. The Pentagon is planning to double its spending on the program, from $14.9 million to $29.9 million in next fiscal year.

The agency also wants to increase its spending on the Upward Falling Payloads program from $11.9 million to $19 million. The program 'will develop forward-deployed (drones) that can provide non-lethal effects or situational awareness over large maritime areas.' The agency will also meet with potential contractors this month to discuss phases of the program that started last year.

The US government has moved away from ground wars in the Middle East to the Pacific, where it faces a rising influence from China. The US also hopes to counter threats over sea lanes used by other countries.

China has increased its use of 'anti-access, are-denial' weapons, such as long-range missiles. Thus, the US can hardly use its ships and aircraft to get close to the Chinese mainland. Pentagon's latest Quadrennial Defense Review notes that in the coming years countries such as China will continue seeking to counter U.S. strengths using anti-access and area-denial approaches.

This conclusion makes the US turn to technologies that will enable US military to place assets closer to its targets without attracting attention.

Hydra project would be situated in coastal waters . It comprises the modular enclosures that are deployed by various means, depending on the requirements for stealth and speed. They will remain deployed and dormant until they are needed.

The Upward Falling Payloads pods would cover almost 50% of global waters that are more than 4 kilometers deep. Those waters provide 'vast areas for concealment and storage. This will provide an opportunity to engage the system that may have been dormant for long period of time. At the same time, the vastness of the system allows to operate it across great distances.

'Getting close to objects without warning, and activating distributed systems without delay are key attributes of UFP capability,' DARPA records say.

Voice of Russia, USA Today

Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_14/US-increases -its-underwater-drones-budget-7419/