3 ms·

I think this has biggest advantage in military submarine communications. You launch a drone underwater. Drone flies off, sends radio message, records another f

by vlehto 11y ago

I think this has biggest advantage in military submarine communications. You launch a drone underwater. Drone flies off, sends radio message, records another from headquarters. Then flies to preprogrammed place. Then dives to another preprogrammed place and is recovered by sub. This would me major improvement over communication buoys. Currently when buoy is transmitting, you can guess that the sub is 0,5km away in the general direction of movement of the buoy.

Retric 11y ago
Subs are not really weight limited, so you could have a 20+ mile long cable attached to a buoy giving 2 way communication. Which creates ~1200+ square mile search area assuming you can't just follow the cable.
- dkbrk 11y ago
  But they are volume limited, though I believe they generally store the towed array sonar in the ballast tanks, so the same thing could be done. More serious problems are the time it would take to extend and retract the buoy, speed limitations while the buoy is being deployed, and noise mitgation on the buoy and cable. Right now, submarines carry disposable communication buoys that can be deployed from depth and sent a pre-recorded message via satellite. Submarines can be alerted to a pending message while at depth through Extremely-Low-Frequency radio communication that can penetrate water, at which point the submarine can move to periscope depth and communicate via satellite without actually surfacing.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- vlehto 11y ago
  Subs are weight limited. There is current trend to make control surfaces out of glass fiber to save weight. The vessel has to be buoyant despite 80mm thick steel skin. Spain just had trouble with too heavy sub. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336953/Spains-1-75bn-submarine-programme-torpedoed-realising-near-complete-vessel-70-tonnes-heavy.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336953/Spains-1-75b... Long cables are strength limited. At some point you have to put floats here and there so it doesn't break under it's own weight And then there is the parasitic drag. Long cables have large surface area.

by vlehto 11y ago

Retric 11y ago

Subs are not really weight limited, so you could have a 20+ mile long cable attached to a buoy giving 2 way communication. Which creates ~1200+ square mile search area assuming you can't just follow the cable.

dkbrk 11y ago
But they are volume limited, though I believe they generally store the towed array sonar in the ballast tanks, so the same thing could be done. More serious problems are the time it would take to extend and retract the buoy, speed limitations while the buoy is being deployed, and noise mitgation on the buoy and cable. Right now, submarines carry disposable communication buoys that can be deployed from depth and sent a pre-recorded message via satellite. Submarines can be alerted to a pending message while at depth through Extremely-Low-Frequency radio communication that can penetrate water, at which point the submarine can move to periscope depth and communicate via satellite without actually surfacing.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
vlehto 11y ago
Subs are weight limited. There is current trend to make control surfaces out of glass fiber to save weight. The vessel has to be buoyant despite 80mm thick steel skin. Spain just had trouble with too heavy sub. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336953/Spains-1-75bn-submarine-programme-torpedoed-realising-near-complete-vessel-70-tonnes-heavy.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336953/Spains-1-75b... Long cables are strength limited. At some point you have to put floats here and there so it doesn't break under it's own weight And then there is the parasitic drag. Long cables have large surface area.