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Remember the drug smugglers’ submarine that was captured by Ecuadoran police last year? The 75-foot boat was capable of shipping about 9 tons of cocaine. Jim Popkin of Wired wrote a detailed look at its design after reading a report by the US Navy:
The hull, they discovered, was made from a costly and exotic mixture of Kevlar and carbon fiber, tough enough to withstand modest ocean pressures but difficult to trace at sea. Like a classic German U-boat, the drug-running submarine uses diesel engines on the surface and battery-powered electric motors when submerged. With a crew of four to six, it has a maximum operational range of 6,800 nautical miles on the surface and can go 10 days without refueling. Packed with 249 lead-acid batteries, the behemoth can also travel silently underwater for up to 18 hours before recharging.
The most valuable feature, though, is the cargo bay, capable of holding up to 9 tons of cocaine—a street value of about $250 million. The vessel ferries that precious payload using a GPS chart plotter with side-scan capabilities and a high-frequency radio—essential gadgetry to ensure on-time deliveries. There’s also an electro-optical periscope and an infrared camera mounted on the conning tower—visual aids that supplement two miniature windows in the makeshift cockpit.
You can view several pictures
Phil Pauley’s decidedly imaginative and optimistic proposal for an oceanographic research vehicle is a submersible tank. A three-person crew would pilot a lithium battery-powered boat for two to four weeks at depths of up to 4,000 meters below the surface of the ocean.
Well, perhaps submarine is not the right term for this vehicle. Rather, part of this boat is partially submerged so that users can comfortably view the world beneath the surface of the water. The Korean company Raonhaje makes this battery-powered vehicle which can reach speeds of five knots. You can view additional photos and a video at the link.
Link via DVICE | Photo: Raonhaje
Cyril Howarth spent £50,000 converting a canal boat into something that looks like a U-boat. He’s placed it out on the narrow canal between Leeds and Liverpool (UK), much to the displeasure of local boaters:
But the vessel has so alarmed fellow canal users that British waterways has been called on to investigate whether it breaches any rules.
“You should have seen the faces of the locals when they woke up with a U-boat in their midst,” said Mr Howarth, 78.
Link | Photo: Warren Smith
A Japanese company is considering using submarines to diminish the power of typhoons that hit that nation:
The idea is to use a fleet of around 20 submarines in front of the gathering storm, each fitted with eight pumps capable of shooting 480 tonnes of cold water a minute. The submarines would dive to a depth of 30 meters and pump water from that depth onto the surface of the sea to lower the surface temperature.
Company executive Koichi Kitamura, who came up with the idea, said that in an hour a fleet of 20 submarines could lower the temperature of 57,000 square meters of surface water enough to diminish the strength of the typhoon, which needs an ocean temperature of 25 to 27 degrees Celsius to form and keep spinning. He said the scheme should be able to stop a typhoon in its tracks.
Link via Popular Science | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user DVIDSHUB used under Creative Commons license
The Lockheed P-3C Orion is an anti-submarine warfare aircraft in the inventory of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (among other navies). This video shows a demonstration of its capabilities by using scooters as mock-ups for the P-3C and an enemy submarine. Apparently the Orion’s electronics suite broadcasts Star Wars theme music while it drops a torpedo.
via The Presurfer
US Navy submarines can receive messages while submerged, but can’t respond without raising antennas and exposing themselves. That’s why Lockheed Martin is developing a system of buoys that will be able to relay surface signals to submerged submarines:
The idea was to excite the upper atmosphere with high-frequency radio waves, and it would then emit the ELF bands required for one-way communicate with submerged submarines.
The new system is the first two-way communication method for submarines at depth. The actual depth is classified, but according to Reints the cables attached to the tethered buoys are “measured in miles” and would allow them to be launched from “a significant depth.” The submarine could continue normal operations at its normal speed while communicating.
Link via DVICE | Image: Lockheed Martin
Law enforcement agents in Ecuador discovered a fairly modern, long-range submarine built by narcotics smugglers. It was about to launch for a trip to North America:
The sophisticated camouflaged vessel has a conning tower, periscope and air-conditioning system. It measured about nine feet high from the deck plates to the ceiling and stretched nearly a 100 feet long. The DEA says it was built for transoceanic drug trafficking.
“The submarine’s nautical range, payload capacity, and quantum leap in stealth have raised the stakes for the counter-drug forces and the national security community alike,” said DEA Andean Regional Director Jay Bergman.
It is unclear how far the camouflage-painted submarine could have traveled, but it is believed to be sophisticated enough to cover thousands of miles — and certainly to make it to the North American coast.
Link via Patterico | Photo: EPA/Jaime Echeverria
There’s an annual remote control submarine regatta in Canberra, Australia. Here’s a 2008 video of a RC surface warship in a pool dropping exploding depth charges on a RC submarine cruising beneath it. Below you’ll see a video showing a subsurface perspective of what I think is the same incident.
via Urlesque, where there are more examples of RC vehicles with deadly firepower
Tao Xiangli, a Chinese inventor, is reported to have built a functional submarine:
Amateur inventor Tao, 34, made a fully functional submarine, which has a periscope, depth control tanks, electric motors, manometer, and two propellers, from old oil barrels and tools which he bought at a second-hand market. He took 2 years to invent and test the submarine which costs 30,000 yuan (US$4,385).
This comes a month after a Chinese farmer was reported to have built a helicopter from spare parts.
These drones include both aerial and surface craft intended for clandestine operations:
* Sea Stalker, a torpedo-size underwater robot that specializes in snooping on radio signals and other communications. “The [concept] is to launch these from submarines at night,” Kenny said. “They will transit to offshore, anchor, put their antennas out and begin collection. Ideally you would have a series of these … to cover different ports or hotbeds of terrorist activity. And then you would collate that information on board the ship.”
* Scan Eagle, the 45-pound aerial bot that has seen heavy use by the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kenny says Special Operations Command is looking at boosting Scan Eagle with extra fuel and sensors — and maybe even weapons, like the Air Force’s armed Predators and Reapers. It seems Scan Eagle is launched from a sub’s deck while she is surfaced, but that could change. “We’re looking at launch and recovery from an SSGN payload tube to allow clandestine close-in operations,” Kenny said.
* BUSTER, a 15-pound UAV that Kenny says is particularly useful when working with foreign armies. “We’ve … done some very successful operations with allies, doing foreign internal defense, training them to operate this vehicle.” The allied armies launch BUSTER from land, while the submarine “pull[s] in the full motion video and the infrared, correlate[s] it and fuse[s] it in our battle management centers on board.”
The picture above is of the Sea Stalker. [Correction on 8.3.09: It's the Sea Stalker by General Dynamics and is unmanned, but is a surface, rather than subsurface craft. Thanks, AeroNut!]
Previously on Neatorama: The Navy’s Armed Sea-Bots
