1 May 2014
If you want to keep an eye on everything,
the ocean is a problem. How do you “watch it?” It’s really
big. It’s water. So, it’s hard to put things in it and
make them stand still. Also, watching the ocean is kind of boring.
Over most of the ocean surface, most of the time, nothing much
happens. Then, when you do find out something is “going on” in a
particular place, you can go there, but you can’t get there fast enough.
Most of us would just ignore the whole thing and busy
ourselves with something else. But “problems” like the ocean (how to watch all
of it all the time) are the meat and potatoes of DARPA strategists.
First, the problem of getting things to say put. How can you avoid the “ocean issues?” (It’s liquid
and wavy.) If only you could find a solid surface. But wait.
You can! The bottom of the ocean. Go down far enough, and you’ll
hit the sea floor. Then, you need to put something there.
What? Something that will stay put. But wait. That
“something” has got to able to “respond” quickly when needed. So, if you
tie it down to the sea floor, it won’t be able to move in an emergency.
If you make it so heavy that the ocean currents won’t be able to move it, it
will take more power than you can supply when it has to move in an emergency.
Solution?
Nail down a “pod” to the sea floor. Like the natural
pod filled with seeds, this pod will be filled with minidrones. When the
need arises, release the drones. Where will the drones get the power to
move to the surface quickly? Well, no “power” is really
necessary. You just make them buoyant – lighter than water. So,
instead of powering to the surface, they rise automatically – “falling upward.”
The pods are designed to rest on the ocean floor for long,
long periods of time waiting to release drones that will not only rise “toward”
the surface, working as sea drones, but will also rise to surface and
take off into the air – as airborne drones.
Then, what are these drones supposed to do?
The “upward falling” drones would offer “non-lethal
assistance.” That is, these drones would have surveillance capabilities
(surveillance sensors) providing intelligence or targeting information.
They could, also, act as decoys and even use their “low-power” lasers to
attack.
The “low power” of the lasers and “non-lethal” attack
capabilities are significant and intended limitations. With over 50% of
the ocean floor deeper than two and half miles, recovering the pods, once
deployed would be difficult. If the pods contained advanced weaponry or
extremely hazardous materials, their dysfunction or deterioration could cause
unintended and unwanted damage to ocean-going vessels.
Following DARPA’s guidelines, the success of the
"Upward Falling Payloads" (UFP) program requires the development
of a system that can do three things: First, the system must be able to
withstand the extreme pressure of the deep sea floors for a period of
years. Second, the system must be reliably triggered by remote control
(“standoff command”). And third, the drones must “fall upward” fast
– rise through the water and deliver their payload.
UFP’s first phase began in 2013 with the design of the pods
and their deployable drones/capsules. Also, the design required
communication capabilities allowing the pods to communicate among
themselves. DARPA is now taking bids for the final two phases of the
Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program.
The second phase includes the testing and demonstration of
the developed prototypes at sea. In the third and last phase, to be
completed by early 2017, the pods and drones will be scattered at full depth
and required to work as one system. The actual testing will probably be
done on either side of the Pacific Ocean with some testing in the western Pacific
and other tests in the eastern Pacific off the U.S. coast.
Note the emphasis on communication among the pods and their
payloads as well as the systematic performance of all the devices as a
coordinated group. Each unit is not intended or designed to operate
with complete independence. Rather, each is part of a system and network
of deep sea pods with the ability to communicate with each other to allow
multiple pods to coordinate their activities – if and when necessary.
These units have a natural camouflage/stealth. Their depth
will make detection difficult. In fact, the pods, themselves, will serve
out their useful “lives” well below the depth at which manned vehicles can
operate. So no one can or will be dropping by and visiting the pods on a
regular basis.
Someday, maybe sooner than we think, the deep ocean floors
will be covered with a latticework of pods quietly biding their time until they
are needed.
Thursday 1 May 2014
GCLM5444HOxenia
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