Posted on 12/26/2023 5:22:37 AM PST by FarCenter
Boeing has delivered a first giant robotic submarine to the US Navy, marking a sea change in how American underwater military missions will be conducted in the future, Defense One reported.
The diesel-electric-powered Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), based on Boeing’s Echo Voyager and known as Orca, was shipped after completing a series of sea trials, the report said.
Defense One says the XLUUV can be equipped with payload modules of up to 34 feet, bringing its entire length to about 85 feet. The report notes that the Orca is designed to perform long-duration critical missions to achieve undersea maritime dominance in changing environments and contested waters.
Defense One notes that the US Navy has designated the first Orca as Test Asset System (XLE0) and will apply lessons learned from XLE0’s testing to Orca XLUUV 1 through 5, which will be built and delivered to the Navy in the future.
The crewless submarine is designed to remain at sea for months in open, congested and contested waters with little human intervention, the Defense One report said.
Pentagon officials have discussed how large robotic submarines could help the US military increase its capabilities, especially in the Pacific region, and imposed a new challenge to China’s military build-up in recent years.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
I wonder how many chinese engineers work at Boeing?
I wonder how many ways of hacking these things pedo Joe is allowing the ChiComs to perfect?
How effective would a swarm of 100 of the undersea drones that the Ukes have been using so effectively in the Black Sea be in an attack on a lone U.S. destroyer?
Feel the Power of LUUUUUUV......................
All surface warships are now obsolete.................
Interesting.
Having spent an entire career in the military/industrial complex I have a good understanding of the landscape. We build fabulous weapons. But as the expenditure rate in the Ukraine war has demonstrated, we don’t build them in the quantity we’d need if we ended up in a war. Given the way long range weapons have evolved and the speed at which changes on the battlefield can become accomplished facts that can’t be easily changed, we won’t have the opportunity to build anywhere near the quantity we’d need to win. The first problem is that, although you have a multiyear contract for, say 500 widgets, the funding for that contract is authorized one year at a time. This means companies will not risk automating any part of the process because automation would require the entire contract length to pay for itself. Thus, every weapon is essentially hand built by qualified experts. This means a whole host of problems from the experts retiring to insufficient space and capacity to ramp up when needed. This mechanism is designed to give Congress Critters maximum power to extract whatever they want in order to get their vote to reauthorize.
China is producing like crazy. They have, depending on how you count it, twice the ships and many times the missiles that the US has. Also, they have no compunction about nuking all US bases and possibly the mainland US in the opening day of the war. This is one of those things Americans simply won’t admit could happen because, to us, it’s inconceivable. Normalcy bias. It hasn’t happened. We’d never do such a thing; therefore, it won’t happen. Mao entered the Korean war with the anticipation of losing a million troublesome men. The losses were a feature, not a bug. He also ended the war with the world’s fifth largest air force. This is how the Chinese think.
I understand the view if they do that, we’ll nuke them, and nobody wins. But all the experts said Putin wouldn’t invade Ukraine because it wasn’t in Russia’s interest to do so. We can’t know how someone else, especially someone from a different culture will think.
The idea we could quickly ramp up the way we did in WWII just can’t happen. We don’t have the available populace or the will to do so. Not to mention a huge percentage of our industrial base was relocated to China. (Spain having the Armada’s cannons manufactured in England comes to mind.)
But your question is certainly being looked at by the Navy and countermeasures are being researched.
If a swarm of surface drones can attack a ship simultaneously, the ship defense systems may be overwhelmed. If one or two get through, then the ship may be crippled or sunk. But 100 drones at about $50,000 a pop is still a cheap price to do in a ship that may run $500,000,000 or more.
They’re killin’ da ERF!.....................
I’ve a feeling that we’ve had drone subs for a while, and we are just now publicizing them.
I conjectured a few years ago the idea of a large drone sub that was able to act as a pre-stationed missile bay at depth or even carry a squadron of smaller drones...only coming closer to the surface for launch and/or retrieval.
Bkmk
So what would their incentive be to do so?
The Uke war has been to aircraft carriers what the American Civil War was for wooden hulled ships and what WWII was for battleships. Screwing around so menacingly in the East China Sea is extremely dangerous business.
This seems like something that would just loiter at the bottom of the ocean and activate when needed.
I wonder how many mines that thing can carry?
From #8...
“Mao entered the Korean war with the anticipation of losing a million troublesome men. The losses were a feature, not a bug.”
The CCP is worried about their populace or their 401k performances when they decide strategic matters.
SeaNet...
Aircraft carriers are fine so long as they stay in blue water more than 1000 miles from the nearest hostile shore.
I can confirm your industry points 100%.
Send 500,000,000 excess men off to a foreign war?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.