Boeing's Autonomous Submarine

Hangar Flying
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Even the subs get drones.

It can deploy for months apparently. Lots of mil scenarios come to mind other than just following whales.

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We will lay off their largest city
and listen to their ‘rock and roll’ music


3 Likes
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“Instead, thanks to what’s simply described as a “hybrid rechargeable power system,” it can keep going for months if necessary.”

Hmmm. I’m guessing fuel cells? Without having to power People Space systems and all the support systems for a reactor, power requirements would be much, much lower.

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Yep, I think so too. It’s a decent size (50ft+) with no support ship, so if it’s not nuclear, solar or diesel/hybrid then the only other thing would be a ‘wave motion’ recharge type device - they do exist (Waveglider) but are not this big:

I wonder if a lot of these as ‘mini boomers’ will upset the balance of deterrent warfare. It seems like a scary ‘dead mans switch’(*) type of weapon too, as in how autonomous to make these with a weapons system that just had do the last 200km quickly? A few years from now and the tech gets cheaper too. Not fun to think about on a Sunday morning :expressionless:

(*) Reminds me of the ‘Letters of last resort’ which was the rumoured standing orders for the UK Nuclear deterrent for sub commanders, with part of the chain being ‘If you don’t hear Radio 4 then assume the worse’.

Worked well until the BBC went off air because of a fire alarm. :smile: