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Naive suggestion from someone who has zero knowledge about these things: can't an unmanned submarine drone be constantly moving ahead of the main submarine to d
by kyriakos 4y ago
Naive suggestion from someone who has zero knowledge about these things: can't an unmanned submarine drone be constantly moving ahead of the main submarine to detect these obstacles before they become dangerous to the submarine and crew?
- Loic 4y agoYes, but noise would be a problem.
- kyriakos 4y agoNoise from the drone propeller?
- hyperthesis 4y agoWouldn't a small drone make less noise than a submarine?
- jvanderbot 4y agoThat seems intuitive but one thing I've learned in my career is that obvious easy ideas that nobody does are usually missing key details.
- dragonwriter 4y agoA small drone and a submarine would make more noise than either alone.
- bheadmaster 4y agoWhat about using a pressure sensor fixed to a long pole in front of the submarine? That way, if they hit anything, the pole would hit first, and could activate the stopping mechanism.
- adastra22 4y agoThese things can't stop on a dime.
- bheadmaster 4y agoHow long would the pole have to be to stop a 40mph submarine?
- adastra22 4y agoYou could probably find the data you need here: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36725639.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36725639.pdf
- hutzlibu 4y agoImagine swimming with a long pole attached to the front of you. Even if it would be thin, it would still disturb you very much. Also the disturbances in the water created by the pole would make noise, that can be detected. Submarines are optimised in everything for absolute stealth, up to the point that the crew may not make any noise, like dropping a wrench.
- rdl 4y agoBest solution is to pre-map the ocean to the degree possible (mountains don't tend to move, at least on the timescales we care about...); this wouldn't need to be done stealthily (so you could use active sensors), and using surface ships is one option, also drone surface ships and drone underwater vehicles now. I assume there are relatively highly classified high-detail government maps of certain parts of the ocean of particular interest. We also have highly classified models of the exact shape and mass distribution of the Earth, as this is essential to accurate long-range ballistics (i.e. for ICBMs to hit their targets) -- it affects the gravity experienced over the course, and the precision/accuracy needed is higher than just uniform-density sphere or oblate spheroid. Also of magnetic and other anomalies since that can be used as a baseline when searching for submarines or ships using magnetic sensors, although I think this is less important now.
- michelb 4y agoHow many decades/centuries would it take to map the ocean?
- ipaddr 4y agoIt sounds like the Human Genome Project. Well worth the effort.
- dragonwriter 4y agoIts already been largely done, which is why when subs run into seamounts, you tend to see the leadership team relieved. “Maybe it would help to have a map of the space we’re going to be driving very large, very expensive, strategically important pieces of equipment (that also have crews) through blind” is not, as it turns out, something that never occurred to the Navy.
- tomrod 4y agoOceans cover 361M km^2. So if we built 13,333 drones with a failure rate of 25% and they map at a rate of 50 km^2/day at a higher column depth with active sonar, it would take approximately 2 years
- nonethewiser 4y agoHow would it communicate stealthily?
- theelous3 4y agoIt wouldn't because it wouldn't be stealthy.
- kyriakos 4y agoWhy does everyone assume you need wireless communication? You can have a cable running between the submarine and the drone, same channel would be used to power the sub.
- swayvil 4y agoLike a Medusa. Submarines would get scarier.
- lazide 4y agoThat is a lot of heavy, droopy, cable (if it is going to be able to withstand the stresses and ‘unkindness’ of the ocean) which is very likely to get tangled in things like spinning propellers unless very carefully managed. Also, fishing trawlers, whales, etc.
- theelous3 4y agoEven worse than letting an enemy know where you are now, is letting them know where you will be in the future.
- swayvil 4y agoAlso speaking from utter naivety, this seems like a super good idea. Each submarine gets a little attendant constellation of drones. Control them with Bluetooth. Or usb cables. Or whiskers! That's how cats and catfish do it. A dozen 300' plastic prongs protruding frontward. Or, to combine the two : TENTACLES!
- amelius 4y agoNice idea, but how many ship-lengths does a submarine need to slow down from full to zero speed? Probably more than a few.
- thebruce87m 4y agoThe submarine in SeaQuest DSV had mini underwater drones called whiskers that did this job: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV