Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Will areal and underwater drones make military nuclear Submarines vulnerable to detection and destruction?

Recommendable! Nice overview article on the various technologies to detect and destroy military submarines.  

How vulnerable have nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, on which Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) in a second strike depends, become or will become in the near future?

Commercial versus military underwater drones:
"... Confusion might come from the fact that [under water] drones, unlike surface ships, do not bear a country flag, and therefore their ownership may be unclear. This uncertainty, coupled with the possibility that the drones could also carry lethal payloads, increases the risk that a naval force might view an innocuous commercial drone as hostile. ..."

"The assurance that submarines would likely survive the first missile strike in a nuclear war and thus be able to respond by launching missiles in a second strike is key to the strategy of deterrence known as mutually assured destruction. ...
And now the game of submarine hide-and-seek may be approaching the point at which submarines can no longer elude detection and simply disappear.  ...
Underwater drone swarms can do just that, which is why some experts have proposed them as the ultimate antisubmarine capability. ... that such drones now have enhanced computing power and batteries that can last for two weeks between charges. The U.S. Navy is working on a drone that could run for 90 days. Drones are also now equipped with the chemical, optical, and geomagnetic sensors mentioned earlier. Networked underwater drones, perhaps working in conjunction with airborne drones, may be useful for not only detecting submarines but also destroying them, which is why several militaries are investing heavily in them. ...
For example, the Chinese Navy has invested in a fishlike undersea drone known as Robo-Shark, which was designed specifically for hunting submarines. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is developing the Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarming Technology, for conducting surveillance missions. Each Locust drone weighs about 6 kilograms, costs $15,000, and can be outfitted with MAD [Magnetic anomaly detection] sensors; it can skim low over the ocean’s surface to detect signals under the water. ..."

Will AI Steal Submarines’ Stealth? - IEEE Spectrum Better detection will make the oceans transparent—and perhaps doom mutually assured destruction

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