TAMPA , Florida – Ross Lindman gently pat the black hull of his intimidating 25 - foot aquatic robot . Then he gestures to the cluster bomblet strapped to either side of it . “ This , ” says the Columbia Group frailty chairman , “ is an subaquatic Predator . ”
Lindman is n’t kidding . On one side of the Proteus , the Columbia Group ’s observational hero , are two 220 - pound cluster bomblet . They ’re just for display here at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference , but the passersby get the depiction .
And that does n’t remotely approach what the Proteus can sway . Either side of the Italian sandwich can hold up to 1,600 pounds of payload .
“ you may strap different types of mine and ordnance to it , ” Lindman says , 3,200 pound ’ worth . That ’s right smart more firepower than the two Hellfire missile that fit aboard the Predator , the iconic drone pipe plane that serve as a muse for Lindman ’s submarine .
All of that is in addition to its potential spotting mental ability . The 6,200 - pound Cuban sandwich can sustain up to 400 pounding of gearing inside it – a lot of sensors and photographic camera to feel danger hang around in the briny deep . Or , you may jam commandos indoors .
The Proteus is design to be a fairly self-directed vehicle : Plug in coordinates for it and watch it go . But it also has a manned function , with enough bay laurel distance to stow up to seven Navy SEALs , should they need to be enclose . But do n’t keep ‘ em in long ; there ’s not a raft of space for them to get comfortable .
The Proteus is a tone in a direction the Navy ’s top officer badly wants the navigation inspection and repair to locomote . Adm. Gary Roughead , the outgoing chief of naval operations , has delivered spoken language after speech urging engineers tobuild an “ unmanned underwater vehicle ” – a robotic sub – capable of traveling thousands of marine mi for months on end without exposing human submariners to risk . ( More on that in a subsequent stake . )
Proteus ca n’t meet Roughead ’s lofty goals . It clear out at a range of 324 marine miles before it needs to refuel , a undertaking that will last it 92 hours . It ca n’t go faster than 10 knots , and the Columbia Group anticipates it ’ll most probable traveling between 3 and 5 knots .
But it ’s a step toward a big remote-controlled sub that ’s weaponized – the current ones commandos use areabout the size of it of a torpedo . Roughead considers weaponize UUVs to be an inevitability . Conceivably , the golem Cuban sandwich of the future will carry weapon like submarine sandwich to disable mines . Or , they ’ll be weapons themselves , hurtling like motorized kamikaze at a butt .
The Proteus takes the first approaching . Lindman imagines it strapped with a bevy of different weapons , like theMK67 submarine sandwich Launched Mobile Mineor theMK-54 torpedo . Or it could carry the Sea Fox , itself another robot , design to flub up mines with a shape charge .
gesture to the weapon system bay , Lindman say , “ I can carry other vehicles ” on the Proteus – even suicidal ones like the Sea Fox .
That ’s if it works . Proteus wo n’t go into the body of water until the summertime , near Columbia Group ’s nursing home of Panama City , Florida . The military has n’t invested a dime bag into the thing ’s development . But if the sub can make it out of development doing as much as Lindman envisions , the seas will be haunt by a new machinelike predator .
Photo : Spencer Ackerman
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