I was coming here to comment very much the same thing, the article didn't seem to address the ways in which this plane would avoid those issues. Even without ro

I was coming here to comment very much the same thing, the article didn't seem to address the ways in which this plane would avoid those issues. Even without rogue waves destroying the craft, rough enough seas would either necessitate suspending flights (costly) or flying higher (costly) to avoid sea conditions. I'm wondering why DARPA feels like they've beaten those issues, even if they're using computer vision, a ground effect plane that has to keep climbing is not getting the fuel savings it needs. Iirc the Soviets also discovered that a low-flying seaplane gets absolutely scoured by salt spray, which adds a non-trivial expense to maintenance, or a risk of catastrophe.