U.S. Navy Introduces ‘GhostSwimmer’ – Underwater Drone That Looks Like A Shark
The United States Navy is doing everything imaginable to bring safety, security, and warfare into the future. The Navy is going full force into their science-fiction-turned-reality projects and now they’ve unveiled the GhostSwimmer – a robot drone that swims underwater and looks just like a shark.
According to Yahoo, the GhostSwimmer is just the latest in unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in Navy parlance, and the Pentagon is going to keep going.
GhostSwimmer is five-feet-long and weighs in at 100 pounds. The Jaws look-alike was developed by the chief of naval operations’ Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC) project known as Silent NEMO.
For now, the Navy’s shark drone will be used to gather information, surveillance, and other simple matters. In the future, GhostSwimmer is going to be part of much larger initiative that could end up becoming a huge fleet of UUVs.
Michael Rufo, director of Advanced Systems Group, assisted in development of the GhostSwimmer.
“GhostSwimmer will allow the Navy to have success during more types of missions while keeping divers and sailors safe.”
As The Mary Sue reported, don’t be confused and think this is a real shark that has been taken under the control of humans. It is indeed a shark drone or “robot-shark” and one that is in complete control of the Navy, but it is not living or breathing and never did.
The Navy’s GhostSwimmer has obviously gotten the attention of a lot of people, including Avengers genius Joss Whedon.
@JaneEspenson @DrewZachary Robot Shark Monster! @WIRED: Navy robot looks & swims like a shark http://t.co/QmXedi7Rec pic.twitter.com/sjV1qr9NOJ”
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) December 16, 2014
The GhostSwimmer can currently swim in depths of 300 feet or even as little as 10 inches. The Navy can even control the swimming of the drone shark entirely or let it free-roam on its own. It can stay underwater for as long as necessary, but needs to surface from time-to-time so that it can gather date needed to continue operating.
Recently, the U.S. Navy revealed their new laser weapon that is mounted on the USS Ponce and can blow up things with very little effort. These new inventions and innovations are just the latest revelations from the Navy, but it is known that there is much more in store.
Yahoo did go on to report that the Office of Naval Research has a project in place to try and duplicate the wake-free undulations of the eel.
There’s no telling what could come about from the U.S. Navy in the future, but the drone shark known as GhostSwimmer and their new laser weapon show that things are getting very exciting.
[Image via U.S. Navy]
