In 2016, the US Navy established the iLab at the Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific.  Lt. Cmdr. Chris Keithley who is the iLab’s military advisor said, “We believe that [for] many of problems that Sailors are experiencing right now, there are solutions.  Unfortunately, they’re nascent inside of the Sailors’ heads, and getting to the point of actually developing a prototype and testing that idea is rather difficult. What we do here is try to take in these ideas, show it to our staff here at [Submarine Force Pacific], and propose how we can proceed forward with it.”  So while the iLab is held in a small room, they are taking big ideas that come from actual sailors and finding ways to turn a concept into reality.

One such idea came from a Sailor who wanted to find a better way of getting supplies to a submarine that is already underway.  For the most part, supplies that would need to be made to a submarine crew would include small parts, food, and medical supplies.  Having to resurface at port for these supplies compromises the whole point of a submarine vessel, to remain hidden by the depths of the ocean.  The iLab partnered up with the University of Hawaii Applied Research Lab to solve this issue.  As stated on their website, “The Applied Research Lab at the University of Hawaii was established in July 2008 as a Navy sponsored laboratory to provide research, development, test and evaluation, system engineering, and other engineering capabilities essential to the Navy and the Department of Defense.”  Together the two research labs came up with a way to meet that sailor’s request with the use of a drone.

We hear all the time of companies promising to make drone based deliveries to homes a reality.  Slowly but surely the logistics of just such systems are being worked out.  There is already a successful drone delivery operation for medical supplies in Raleigh, NC.  In a small Virginian town the beginning trials of drone deliveries from a local Walgreens to customer homes has begun as well.  But trying to work out the logistics for making a drone delivery to a submarine is a whole new challenge.

The benefits of using a drone to make deliveries to a submarine at sea is that they are a far less expensive and time consuming manner of delivery, compared to having to waste time coming to port or use a costly helicopter to make a delivery.  A drone allows a submarine to maintain a higher level of stealth and does not take up the time and resources for which a helicopter could be better allocated.  However, most drones do not have a battery that can support a long enough flight to go far out to sea.  As the teams soon realized this can easily be solved by launching a drone from a fighter ship already at sea within the vicinity of the submarine.

The next step was to determine how the drone would safely make the handoff of it’s package to the submarine crew.  Sailors who were stationed in Pearl Harbor volunteered to be trained in how to operate the drone and create a means of delivering the package.  Lt. Cmdr. Chris Keithley said, “Members of University of Hawaii Applied Research Lab worked alongside COMSUBPAC (Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet) sailors to develop a ‘snag’ pole and payload release mechanism from the drone, practicing the concept using the prototypes on the back of trucks and jeeps.  As the training progressed and the drone innovations became more reliable, the team was able to demonstrate the capability onto a small patrol boat out of Pearl Harbor.”

The final test came on October 10 when the small quadrocopter was launched off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.  The drone flew about a mile out to sea where it meet up with the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776).  The package hanging from the belly of the drone weighed 5lbs and contained food, medical supplies, and replacement circuit cards.   Lt. Cmdr. Chris Keithley said, “The snag pole and drone delivery mechanisms performed perfectly as the payload of parts was safely delivered onboard the submarine, making history as the first ever drone delivery onboard an underway submarine.  I am very proud of the joint effort and the capability they have created out of nearly thin air. The success of this project is a true testament to the ingenuity of our team and I am very thankful for them and our submarine Sailors, who volunteered their time to make it a success.”  He went on to say, “What started as an innovative idea has come to fruition as a potentially radical new submarine logistics delivery capability.”