The Sea Ferret was a submarine-launched aerial reconnaissance drone under development by the United States Navy, designed to be launched from within a Sub-Harpoon missile canister and controlled by a submerged submarine to provide covert surveillance, weapons targeting, choke point interdiction, and battle damage assessment.
While its primary mission was reconnaissance, Sea Ferret was a weapon, carrying a nine-kilogram (20 lb) warhead, capable of destroying smaller targets like command centers and surface-to-air missile launchers.
Sea Ferret was under development by Northrop Grumman Corporation since 1991, and was successfully demonstrated onboard Asheville (SSN-758).
General characteristics edit
- Weight: 145 lb (66 kg)
- Length: 75 in (1.9 m) long
- Range: 370 nautical miles (685 km)
- Loiter: 2 hours
- Speed: 300 knots (550 km/h) maximum, 80 knots (148 km/h) minimum
- Warhead: 20 lb (9 kg)