Scientists developing sub-tracking sea drone.

• Position: Defense Technology Newswire

Potential adversaries have shown an increasing ability to build quiet diesel-electric submarines, and the Pentagon has had enough.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded a contract to McLean, Va.-based Science Applications International Corp. to develop an unmanned vessel that can track these subs for months at a time over thousands of kilometers.

Under the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program, SAIC will design and construct the sea drone and demonstrate its ability to keep watch on quiet subs with minimal input from humans. If successful, the program could help reduce manpower and other costs associated with current anti-submarine warfare operations. It also could lead to ship designs that do away with constraints associated with conventional naval architecture such as layout, accessibility and crew support systems.

"Our goal is to transition an operational gamechanger to the Navy," DARPA Program Manager Scott Littlefield said in a prepared statement. "This should create an...