Sea Ferret

Overview

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).