The U.S. Department of Defense has launched the primary footage of its prototype unmanned anti-submarine ship being developed to trace quiet diesel-electric submarines over lengthy distances.

The new vessel was launched in January at Vigor’s shipyard in Portland, Oregon, the place it has quietly been below building for the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

During a velocity checks in February, the vessel reached a prime velocity of 27 knots.

The vessel is a part of a DARPA program is to design, develop and assemble a wholly new class of ocean-going vessel supposed to chase submarines throughout hundreds of miles of ocean for months at a time with out a single crew member aboard.

Until now DARPA has solely launched some fundamental illustrations of the vessel, depicting a smooth wave-piercing trimaran paying homage to Sea Shepherd’s late-powerboat Ady Gil, a vessel that was initially created circumnavigate the globe. 

DARPA says the vessel is scheduled to be christened on April 7, 2016, with open-water testing deliberate to start in summer season 2016 off the California coast.