The Promise of Technology: Navy could save billions of dollars sending robots to patrol the oceans

摘要

One of the defense industry's most secretive technology developers - Boeing's Phantom Works - is making a big bet on commercial robots it believes are better suited to military needs and cheaper than anything the Pentagon could ever invent. Seeing an obvious need in the U.S. Navy and motivated by the Pentagon's rhetoric that it intends to buy innovative products from the commercial industry, Boeing executives decided to depart from the traditional defense business model and spend company funds to develop a family of autonomous mini-submarines.