One of the U.S. Navy’s many advanced projects steps closer to becoming a reality in the world’s oceans. DARPA’s ACTUV project, which hopes to develop the first unmanned surface ship, has surpassed technological hurdles and will head into more advanced trials.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) along with the engineering firm Leidos began the Anti-submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) project in 2010 to develop an unmanned ship to hunt submarines, especially new low-cost, fast and silent diesel submarines. The ship, of trimaran design, will span 132 feet in length.

Defense One reports that the ACTUV’s software successfully passed part of its sea trials on the Mississippi River and will move forward to more complex exercises. The 42-foot-long test boat succeeded to independently traverse 35 miles of the Mississippi during six weeks of testing, facing various obstacles, including shoals, rocks and other vessels, and effectively avoided them using a simple radar and digital charts.

The ACTUV software will now go through the next step of being tested against “potential enemies.”

The test helped determine whether ACTUV followed the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. If it continues to navigate waters without incident, the ship could navigate without crew on the open seas.

The ACTUV program aims to create an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that will fulfill its main function of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) as well as be converted for other missions. The USV is designed to work over a vast distance for months at a time using high technology and advanced software.

As the ACTUV moves closer to the goal of Phase 4, which is for the USV to be tested in open water, DARPA has released a call for a Request for Information (RFI) for available technologies that can be applied to the ACTUV.

Sensor systems and image-processing hardware and software that use passive (electro-optical/infrared) or non-radar active (such as light detection and ranging) approaches are some of the technologies DARPA seeks.

“We’re looking for test-ready, multi-sensor approaches that push the boundaries of today’s automated sensing systems for unmanned surface vessels,” said Scott Littlefield, DARPA program manager. “Enhancing the ability of these kinds of vessels to sense their environment in all weather and traffic conditions, day or night, would significantly advance our ability to conduct a range of military missions.”

As the project moves forward, DARPA and Leidos have begun construction of the first full-scale prototype, called the Sea Hunter, with Christensen Shipyard and the Oregon Iron Works and will be launched on the Columbia River later this year.

Watch a simulation of the ACTUV in action: