The Cormorant -- just another robotic swimming spy drone for the Navy
This new robotic-submarine-spy-plane from Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works is just a concept for now, but it's one badass concept if you ask us, so we thought we'd share. The Cormorant is designed to be launched from the large missile tubes on subs that were originally designed for nuclear weapons. Once ejected, the robotic plane floats to the surface then fires up its rockets to fly its mission, be it a surgical missile strike or surveillance. After completion, the plane returns to the sea and is found by a robotic underwater vehicle which brings the drone back to the sub. DARPA is currently funding tests of a few of the systems proposed for the Cormant, and will then decide whether to build a prototype -- we just hope they'll be accepting orders from illegal side organizations run by popular gadget news sites.