米国ヤフー・ニュースから転載。
米国ロード・アイランド州ニューポートにある米国海軍軍事研究所は、
無人潜水艦を開発している。
現段階では、魚雷サイズの無人潜水艦が海中でテストされている。
２０１７年頃までに、７０日間、海面下を操行可能な無人大型潜水艦を開発し、１０年後に無人潜水艦の船団を配備する予定である。
既に、無人潜水艦は、大西洋に墜落した航空機のフライトレコーダーを回収するのに成功している。
ちなみに、米国空軍は、既にアフガニスタンで無人戦闘機を実戦に投入している。
そのうちに、人間の戦闘パイロットは無人戦闘機に置き換わり、
人間の潜水艦乗りは無人潜水艦に置き換わる。
要するに、兵隊は不要となり、
日本の自衛隊の隊員も人員削減されることは確実である。
この記事は、米国海軍軍事研究所に言及しているが、
この海軍研究所は、マイクロ波聴覚効果を利用した通信システム、即ち、人間の頭部にマイクロ波を照射して、音声を認識させる通信システムを開発することにも関与している。
具体的には、この海軍研究所では、マイクロ波聴覚効果の生理機構を解明する基礎実験がされており、この実験結果が学術論文に掲載されている。
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) ― Just beneath the placid, sailboat-dotted surface of Narragansett Bay, torpedo-shaped vehicles spin and pivot to their own rhythm, carrying out missions programmed
by their U.S. Navy masters.
The bay known as a playground for the rich is the testing ground
for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport,
where the Navy is working toward its goal of
achieving a squadron of self-driven, undersea vehicles.
One of the gadgets recently navigated its own way from
Woods Hole, Mass., to Newport,
completing several pre-set tasks in
what the military calls an unprecedented feat.
Technology under consideration by the military is often tested
aboard cylinder-shaped vehicles with a diameter of about 20 inches.
But the center also tests its own prototypes, including one dubbed Razor, which can propel itself by using flippers, like a turtle, for stealth.
The Navy hopes its drones will eventually pilot themselves
across oceans. The vehicles are already used
to detect mines and map the ocean floor and,
with tweaks over the next several years,
the military says they will be applied more
to intelligence gathering and,
in the more distant future, anti-submarine warfare.
"We do see these autonomous undersea vehicles as game changers," said Christopher Egan, a program manager at NUWC.
Compared with aerial drones, the undersea vehicles
can be challenging to control from a distance.
The water distorts the transmission of signals,
and the drones have to contend with
boat traffic, swirling currents, and obstacles on the ocean floor.
They are typically powered by batteries,
but their endurance has been sharply limited by the lack of
a stronger power source that will allow for safe handling
by sailors who deploy and collect the devices aboard submarines.
With advances in alternative energy sources, particularly fuel cells,
the Navy says it is close to achieving a fully independent drone.
By 2017, the Navy aims to have a large, unmanned vehicle
that can stay out for 70 days. Within the next decade,
it wants to field its first full squadron.
"We've seen the advances of unmanned aerial vehicles and
what that provides to the war fighter,"
said Navy Capt. Brian Howes,
who is involved in planning for the vehicles as commander of
Submarine Development Squadron 5 in Washington state.
"We're pushing the technology to have the same leap
for our unmanned undersea vehicles."
In a time of tight federal budgets, the Navy also sees drones
as a cost-effective way to extend the reach of its submarine fleet,
which has been gradually shrinking in size
since the end of the Cold War.
Norman Friedman, a New York-based naval analyst, said
the unmanned undersea vehicles ― or UUVs ― are
a necessary investment. Whether they deliver on their promise, he said, will depend on success at finding the right power plant.
"The big obstacle is going to be energy," he said. "I don't get the feeling anyone has jumped up and said this is not a problem anymore."
（中略）
The vehicle that completed the 26-hour voyage
from Cape Cod to Newport in October 2010, for example,
plotted its own course without relying on GPS positioning or
other communications, Egan said. Guiding itself by features
on the sea floor, it passed through the pylons of a bridge, circumnavigated the island of Jamestown and surfaced in a pre-determined spot inside the harbor.
The laboratory at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center,
which has 65 engineers and scientists dedicated to UUVs,
works closely with private companies, academic institutions and
other government agencies involved in similar research.
The gadgets have a wide range of applications beyond the military,
as demonstrated last year by vehicles that recovered
the flight data recorder from an Air France plane that crashed
in the mid-Atlantic.