Unmanned undersea vessels eyed by Pentagon as key part of Navy growth

As pressure rises on the U.S. Navy to boost its shipbuilding capacity, the Pentagon has released a call for a new type of undersea vessel called the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform, or CAMP, an unmanned system built “to maximize operational effectiveness in contested environments,” according to the solicitation released by the Defense Innovation Unit.

This new class of remotely operated vessel aims to take the Navy’s capacity for undersea warfare to the next level — maneuvering in GPS-denied environments at a range greater than 1,000 nautical miles and diving to more than 200 meters underwater during missions, one of which would include dropping “various payloads to the sea floor.”