US Navy uncloaks stealthy underwater solar cells Scientists at the US Navy Research Laboratory (NRL) are developing solar cells that can work effectively up to nine meters underwater, powering marine systems for long periods of time. Big data is not just for the boardroom, but for the battlefield as well, and military planners are working on using a lot more stealthy sensors …
The amount of power used versus amount captured is too great a ratio. Not to mention that the torpedo is a shoot and kill weapon so it will go boom before it runs out of juice.
As to sneaky subs... They already exist... ;-) they run on nukes.
Having said that... There are some interesting defensive weapons that could be developed...
Not sure if there will be cuts.
It's still the only 'running silent, running deep' weapons deployment platform, for a number of missile / rocket types.
Therefore it also serves as maybe a bigger deterrent than the aircraft carriers the US uses.
The submarine might be able to go through the Strait of Hormuz - although I dunno how deep that is. Compare that to the carrier / task force going through. Juicy targets, those ships are...
But even then - mini subs or even drones going through there undetected, never having to surface only at points of insertion / retrieval?
And they're 'green'. No nasty 'nucular' fuel rods to deal with afterwards.
Intelligence-gathering bonanza...
In a matter of days, anything that's underwater starts getting over grown with all sorts of sea life, and in months it gets covered. Unless they come up with a way of turning these solar cells completely inhospitable to the stuff that wants to grow on them, then they are wasting their time.
Ssssh. The scientists working on this tech probably know full well there might be practical problems in the real world, but meanwhile are happy to do research while funded. Reminds me of the LASER research in the 90s (late 80s?) where the scientists involved knew full well what they were being asked for was probably impossible or impractical, but were receiving massive *weapons* funding anyways. Afaik, the project produces a lot of material mostly of use to chip manufacturing. Its seems that now too, it may have contributed to the 'flying laser' weapons too.
Industry is developing ever-more-effective (and potentially environmentally-nasty) coatings to keep objects clear of marine growths.
"At present the standard antifouling coating for the US Navy consists of cuprous oxide dispersed in a mixture of natural rosin and a vinyl chloride vinyl acetate copolymer. This coating has a service life of at best 12-18 months. It is not clear how long the use of toxic antifouling coatings will be permitted to continue for the accumulation of copper and tin in the environment has already reached high levels and is becoming a burden."
Research study here: http://www2.dupont.com/Teflon_Industrial/en_US/products/product_by_name/zonyl_ptfe/zonyl_techinfo_antifouling.html
Devices designed to extract wave motion need to have a component on the surface, and are dependent on the durability of their mechanical systems.
A solar device on the other hand can be entirely solid state, and dependent only on the solar cell remaining clean enough to generate useful amount of power. Its a different tradeoff, but the solar system is much simpler, probably much cheaper and rather less easy to spot which might be important for military applications...
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