Has to be called the USS Karl Rove.

That DARPA didn't think this one up

...a bit like its top speed. I can't think of a single development in naval propulsion that was adopted that meant vessels were slower than those using the original method...

If ooze drive ( thanks Lewis! if any researcher needs human nasal mucous to compare to snail slime there is now about twenty or thirty cc s of it mixed with tea on my key board) should become a method of Navy propulsion, I can recommend researching the Rosy Wolf snail (Euglandia Rosea) from the South Eastern U S which is predatory on other snails, it detects and tracks them down by their slime trails .

so long as their aren't any waves. See "Donald Campbell exits from a tap in Huddersfield".

They said slime dripping and toxic to the rest of the world. Now if that slime was giving off beta and alpha ration , you would be correct. You are thinking more of Anne Coulter.

A typical one-track article from this turrible author whose primary qualification appears to be alliteration. (Just kidding - he's brilliant. :)

But we need to branch out here. With all the robots being made, surely this technology will "start small" and before reaching battleships be floating aquatic killbots. Imagine the humiliation of being gunned down by a snail - on a river, no less. Ugh. It would be like being beaten up by a sloth at an ice rink.

This must be precisely how those floating white ball things in The Prisoner worked. So maybe they're up on the invention block as well.

And cargo shipping is always keen to reduce their fuel costs. So if this lubricative slime layer helps them cross the ocean any more smoothly, they'll want in on it so they can ship things more cheaply - watching out for pirates 'round Africa, one would hope.