US military readies drone submarine hunter

Re: This is a game changer

"Any ideas on how this hypothetical rock of your is supposed to appear without being visible on sonar? You know, the big active sonar that's on the drone boat?"

No one uses active sonar, that's like broadcasting a few megawatts of "WE ARE RIGHT HERE!" to the world. Active sonar can be detected far further away than it's own echo detection range. So passive sonar is usually used. It's very hard to detect some one listening for you.

And there are far stranger things in the worlds oceans than floating rocks.

Re: This is a game changer

Actually, some decades ago, I was officer of the watch when our variable depth sonar hit a French submarine. Possibly the sonar was looking in the wrong direction and did not see it before hitting it.

Re: And what about Somalian Pirates?

2 warnings, 0 errors

"Warnings are errors" - Scott Allen

Re: WTF, ok i may be a little late to the party but !!!

still seems hellish high,

say the boat costs a billion - over 20 years, officers ~100K a year, crew 40K a year ....

my super military grade calculator still comes nowhere near ..... they must eat a lot ..

Re: WTF, ok i may be a little late to the party but !!!

And that ignores any consumables...

And it ignores the cost impact of R&R downtime, shore based support, training, pensions for the meatsacks etc etc.

There's some missions that would be very difficult to replace servicemen with automation, but submarine and mine hunting are just the start. Attack submarines, and surface missile platforms could easily be automated - why have a meatsack crew to launch autonomous missiles, or fire ballistic weapons that are wholly dependent upon automated guidance and targeting? Even the big stuff like aircraft carriers could be almost fully automated (and launch only UAV and cruise missiles), although the complexity of the systems would mean that they'd undoubtedly need a skeleton crew of techs and mechanics.

In fact, not too much different to the vast container ships that now can operate with minimal crews (eg Emma Maersk, 170,000t with a crew of 13) the only thing with naval vessels is whether the communications links can be secure enough and long distance enough for the actual attack decisions to be made by a few petty officers sitting in a shed in Arizona.

This will be a re-run of the drone debate: The Navy will of course fight back, just as the Air Force maintain that they can't possibly replace fast jets flown by officers and gentlemen with drones controlled by NCOs. So long as these vessels replace the dull stuff like mine sweeping and coastal patrol, the Navy top brass will be more than happy. As soon as the technology threatens to remove the opportunity for glamorous derring-do on the high seas, the culture of the Navy will start to argue why unmanned boats are a bad idea.

Re: WTF, ok i may be a little late to the party but !!! (alert - missed point here)

IANAS (I am not a sailor) but I suspect the real savings in running costs would come from the ability to build the drones without all the support systems required to keep the relatively poorly-paid officers and ratings warm, fed and protected - the savings in volume and weight would be significant. Less kit on board = less weight to propel = less fuel required = lovely virtuous circle leading to lower running costs. Plus the salary savings on shore - driving and fighting the drone would require fewer men/women than driving/fighting a full sized vessel. Plus the ability to make the little whatsits go really really fast, compared to other vessels, for the same fuel expenditure. Those bursts of speed would see off the Somalian pirates referred to in other posts, and would probably even give some ability to avoid airborne threats.

Isn't this is the same sort of argument used to argue for unmanned space exploration? pxd

Re: Salvage?

.... I guess an army of military lawyers would rush to court to explain it was under autonomous control and not in any danger...

Oh, so all you need is to point a torpedo at it, then you can salvage it?