This was sent to me today.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Good luck fitting a Navy Seal team in a torpedo tube.
But all joking aside, I am positive they have launched AUVs and submerged reconnaissance vehicles from the torpedo tubes.

a reply to: Clairaudience

The air impulse on launch tends to smear them all over the tube.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Like drone torpedos? Littoral drones that shut down harbors secretly without the Chinese knowing it. Patiently waiting until the order comes to wreak havoc. Patiently waiting for the boat they've been looking for to sail past and then secretly trail halfway across the ocean getting all sorts of data? Drones to swim deep and "play" with seafloor comm/data cables.

That's what I would do if I were in charge. Wonder if the navy have looked at options like that for development.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR

And I've had a 688 surface a quarter mile behind a ferry I was on heading to catalina right in our wake. We sailed right over it and didn't notice.

Sorry for the off topic as well but...

I've seen one of the Ohio's coming home while salmon fishing in the Hood Canal a little north of Bangor in Washington.

Its just amazing to see those things in person.

There is a platform out there that lurks beneath the ocean waves that can perform much of the duties it’s much larger Air Force cousins do out of their sprawling airfields in the Middle East.

I don't think so, and this smacks of hyperbole, as does the entire analysis. The ability of a submarine to send a couple of drones or even manned aircraft from the water hardly compares to a couple of squadrons of F-15s from the Air Force or the nearly 100 aircraft carried on a modern carrier. They are for completely different missions. One cannot substitute for the other. It's certainly worth talking about, but this is neither "amazing" nor a "game changer" in any sense of the terms.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I now for a fact SEALs do not like egressing via tube. Apparently when they equalize the pressure in the tube to the ambient pressure of the water at whatever depth they are hovering at they are supposed to do it gradually. But sometimes noobs operating the controls adjust the pressure instantly and the seals literally get lifted up and slammed against the tube walls like a bomb went off. Plus they can only lock out a few at a time. the others have to feel around the hull in the dark to get to the air supplies from the sub while they have to wait a half hour in the cold for the rest of the team to lock out two at a time. Then there is the issue that subs don't just like to stop in the water. They have to (or at least the older ones) keep going at like a knot of two to get water into the cooling pumps or whatever. The sub gets unstable at that slow a speed and starts to dive or speed up a few knots leaving the seals behind or bouncing along the hull aftwards and in danger of getting turned into hamburger by the propulsor.

a reply to: schuyler

Being able to launch UAVs underwater is a game-changer, but not new or revolutionary from a technological perspective. But I completely agree with you, there is no equivalent of an aircraft carrier beneath the ocean, if anything it would be a stationary submarine carrier.

a reply to: Drunkenparrot

Gargantuan. Literal leviathans. Still puckers me knowing we sailed right over a 300 foot long beast lurking like a dangerous predator and had no idea.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Sensor drones...? Have a network of sensor drones that orbit the sub at distances that extend the sub's eyes and ears.

Some of these sensor drones could potentially be armed with electronic jamming capabilities.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

They'd have to be extremely short ranged. Datalinks under water tend to be absorbed by water, meaning you need more power to transmit, meaning that it leaves an easily detectable signal.

When they were using the Growler to talk between boats, in WWII, it was loud as hell to anyone that had any kind of detection gear.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The drone sensor would relay the information to the mother sub when it came within close range. As I said, these things would "orbit" the sub. They'd go out and come back, over and over collecting and delivering information about what's around the submarine. They could be passive, or used as decoys (pre programmed when they come back into range of the submarine).

They'd be all networked together, and thus the furthest one out could relay information to the next closest one, so on and so forth until it reaches the sub. This is also how they'd know their own position relative to the boat.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Well there a AUVs that do exactly that in the public/commercial realm, it wouldn't be a stretch to say they are being used by the Navy too.

The Sentry, Remus, SeaBed, just to name a few...

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Like that idea. Like drone autonomous roving SOSUS. Or like a pack of wolves (sharks?) that keep a perimeter and attack on command enemy subs or ships. Russian Akula slips in behind a Virginia. THinks it's getting close enough o collect data and win one for the motherland. Doesn't realize he actually broke through a drone picket line deployed by the Virginia and the drones are now following the Akula from close behind ready to torpedo it from out of nowhere or just stalk it and collect data on it for the next 6 months. Maybe have another sub or ship re collect them later somewhere else. Meanwhile Virginia's captain calmly sips his coffee while reading a 6 month old newspaper smirking at the Akula that thinks it's being cleaver.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

The problem then is time. It has to go out, gather data, and come back, transmit the data to the sub, who then has to analyze it. Not to mention the higher detection chances for the mobile sensors.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I get the ocean absorbs signals etc... I am hoping the navy has figured out a way to broadcast signals very long ranges underwater without others figuring it out. Better than having to use a laser for burst comms while plying close to the surface. Better than deploying a two mile long cable behind them that can get fowled up in some surface ships props or some other sub lurking nearby. Maybe use some sort of signal that can travel at very low frequencies across the globe or earths crust, like how they can detect earthquakes of even the slightest magnitude anywhere across the globe.

Or they could always use some sort of entanglement.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

There are only so many ways to do it, most of which are detectable.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I say autonomous, extremely stealthy long range self reliable drones that can do a multitude of missions with out a support ship for several months and then report back to a mother ship, predetermined treff, or home base. No need for a mother sub. That's what would be happening if Bass were in charge of the navy.

I'd also dump the trained dolphin security teams that protect our harbors and replace them with trained sharks with lasers.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Not if the signal seems like anything other than a signal and is encrypted. For example two whale poops and a shark fart equals message received. A shoal of fish plus two sea lions barking equals launch all missiles immediately.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

And then two sea lions bark near California, and missiles fly.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Nope cause the other half of the confirmation signal wasn't received. Forgot the shark fart.