America launches the worlds first fully autonomous warship

The US military have launched their first experimental, fully autonomous self-driving warship, dubbed Sea Hunter, and representing a major advance in robotic warfare, which is increasingly forming the core of America's strategy to counter the Chinese and Russians, it's designed to hunt enemy submarines. The 132ft unarmed ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) prototype is the naval equivalent of Google's self-driving car. Designed to cruise on the ocean's surface for two or three months at a time and with a range of over 10,000 miles it has neither a crew nor anyone controlling it remotely. And that kind of endurance and autonomy could make it a highly efficient submarine stalker at a fraction of the cost of the Navy's manned vessels. "This is an inflection point," Deputy US Defense Secretary Robert Work said in an interview, adding he hoped such ships might find a place in the western Pacific in as little as five years.