This reminds me a little of the show Seaquest DSV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV It was a '90's show abo

This reminds me a little of the show Seaquest DSV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV It was a '90's show about futuristic submarines ... think "Star Trek" underwater, complete with aliens, communication with dolphins, and a lot of similar trekk-y plot lines. One feature of the subs in the shows was something like "whiskers". These were probes extended from the sub providing sensory data about the environment near & far. A heavy-duty surface ship these days with a flock of drones around it, sending information back, seems pretty similar.