Story highlights Small, unmanned boats could act as "guard dogs" for Navy warships

Unmanned boats choose their own course to confront threatening vessels

Navy says unmanned boats could prevent attacks like one that killed 17 aboard USS Cole

System uses technology developed by NASA for Mars Rover

(CNN) The U.S. Navy is getting ready to "swarm" its adversaries.

The Office of Naval Research over the weekend released video of tests conducted in August that showed five "drone" boats swarming a vessel that posed a threat to a Navy ship.

"The U.S. Navy is unleashing a new era in advanced ship protection," the service says in the video.

Controlled by what the Navy calls Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS), a sensor and software kit that is transferable among small vessels, a fleet of more than a dozen small unmanned boats cruise along the James River in Virginia, setting up a protective screen on a Navy research ship.

When a threatening vessel is detected, five boats break off to confront it.

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