Here's What You Need to Remember: From a tactical circumstance, given that attack submarines and nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines are likely to conduct large amounts of clandestine patrols, it seems as though an ability to avoid having to surface would bring an extraordinary operational advantage. Could newer kinds of AI-enabled undersea drone data processing and analysis introduce new breakthrough possibilities when it comes to solving the longstanding challenge of achieving high-speed, real-time connectivity? Submarine commanders and weapons developers explain that UUV undersea functionality is dependent upon limited battery power and would therefore be further enabled by an ability to "process the data at the source of the sensor" to distinguish and transmit only the most critical information needed by human decision-makers. "That's the concept, how do you get all of that information back to a human to analyze. Maybe you don't want to do that? Maybe you want to allow the UUV to do some initial analysis and make some modifications to its behavior autonomously?"

The Virginia-class, nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine, USS North Dakota (SSN 784), transits the Thames River as it pulls into its homeport on Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn - file photo. Bringing massive amounts of firepower closer to enemy targets, conducting clandestine "intel" missions in high threat waters and launching undersea attack and surveillance drones are all anticipated missions for the Navy's emerging Block V Virginia-class attack submarines. The boats, nine of which are now surging ahead through a new developmental deal between the Navy and General Dynamics Electric Boat, are reshaping submarine attack strategies and concepts of operations -- as rivals make gains challenging U.S. undersea dominance. Eight of the new 22-billion Block V deal are being engineered with a new 80-foot weapons sections in the boat, enabling the submarine to increase its attack missile capacity from 12 to 40 on-board Tomahawks. "Block V Virginias and Virginia Payload Module are a generational leap in submarine capability for the Navy," Program Executive Officer for Submarines Rear Adm. David Goggins, said in a Navy report.

The Defense Department christened the Sea Hunter, a 132-foot robot ghost ship designed to seek out and track diesel-powered submarines across the ocean. The start of the test phase for the program on Thursday signals a new dawn for autonomous systems at sea, which, Pentagon officials say, will perform an ever-wider variety of jobs and could fundamentally change the way militaries operate on the water. The Sea Hunter is the first of a new type of ocean drone, called an Anti-submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV. The goal of the program: field an autonomous ship with the range and endurance to go anywhere in the world while avoiding collisions with other ships and obeying the rules of navigation. "Current unmanned surface vessel systems and concepts are operated as close-adjuncts to conventional manned ships – they are launched and recovered from manned ships, tele-operated from manned ships, and are limited to direct support of manned ship missions. The ACTUVsystem will be a first of its kind unmanned naval vessel that is designed and sized for theater or global independent deployment," reads the program's description from 2014.