Israeli company unveils robot warship

Elbit, an Israel-based defense company, today unveiled a new unmanned surface vessel dubbed the “Seagull,” designed to face danger in the ocean without any humans on board. The system provides unmanned end-to-end mine hunting operation taking the man out of the mine field.

It provides mission planning, and on-line operation in known and unknown areas, including area survey, search, detection, classification, identification, neutralization and verification. It is equipped to search the entire water volume and operate underwater vehicles to identify and neutralize mines.
Or, in other words, the commander of another ship can send out a Seagull roboat or two to scan an area for danger and then clear it. Up to two Seagulls can be controlled at a time, which is useful but hardly the most impressive feat of aquatic remote-control.

While Elbit’s announcement didn’t mention how it works or name any customers, plenty of maritime forces across the world are looking for small, seaworthy robots that can do the dirty work of finding and defusing mines.

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