Posted on 02/23/2006 12:18:37 PM PST by aculeus
Lockheed Martins Skunk Works, famed for the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes that flew higher than anything else in the world in their day, is trying for a different altitude record: an airplane that starts and ends its mission 150 feet underwater. The Cormorant, a stealthy, jet-powered, autonomous aircraft that could be outfitted with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment, is designed to launch out of the Trident missile tubes in some of the U.S. Navys gigantic Cold Warera Ohio-class submarines. These formerly nuke-toting subs have become less useful in a military climate evolved to favor surgical strikes over nuclear stalemates, but the Cormorant could use their now-vacant tubes to provide another unmanned option for spying on or destroying targets near the coast.
This is no easy task. The tubes are as long as a semi trailer but about seven feet widenot exactly airplane-shaped. The Cormorant has to be strong enough to withstand the pressure 150 feet underwaterenough to cave in hatches on a normal aircraftbut light enough to fly. Another challenge: Subs survive by stealth, and an airplane flying back to the boat could give its position away.
The Skunk Workss answer is a four-ton airplane with gull wings that hinge around its body to fit inside the missile tube. The craft is made of titanium to resist corrosion, and any empty spaces are filled with plastic foam to resist crushing. The rest of the body is pressurized with inert gas. Inflatable seals keep the weapon-bay doors, engine inlet and exhaust covers watertight.
The Cormorant does not shoot out of its tube like a missile. Instead an arm-like docking saddle guides the craft out, sending it floating to the surface while the sub slips away. As the drone pops out of the water, the rocket boosters fire and the Cormorant takes off. After completing its mission, the plane flies to the rendezvous coordinates it receives from the sub and lands in the sea. The sub then launches a robotic underwater vehicle to fetch the floating drone.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is funding tests of some of the Cormorants unique systems, including a splashdown model and an underwater-recovery vehicle. The tests should be completed by September, after which Darpa will decide whether it will fund a flying prototype.
Looks like the Flying nun's hat...
Will they be named after Ted kennedy?.........
BTTT
I wasn't aware the Ohio's weren't still doing laps with nukes.
I like the fires left behind.
ping
Seems simple enough.
Even under combat conditions, I don't see anything complicated enough to go wrong with this scenario.
These formerly nuke-toting subs have become less useful in a military climate evolved to favor surgical strikes over nuclear stalemates, but the Cormorant could use their now-vacant tubes...
Four trident subs have been (or are being) converted to carrry Tomohawk cruise missiles (154 of them each) and Seals. This aircraft could certainly fit into that new role of the SSGN.
But the tubes on the SSGNs and the SSBNs (the nuclear missile subs) are anything but "vacant". And, the role of the Trident SSBN is still absolutely critical and indespensable to our national security, therefore they are extremely useful. The SSGNs tubes are also not vacant and their ability to perform the role of a land attack arsenal ship is also very useful...with or without the UAV.
Just my opinion.
Alright...move over top gun, you're about the be replaced by a nerd who got his training on an X-Box.
Or maybe if they have holes in them we can just leave these billion dollar planes behind because we don't need them anymore.
Seems cool, but wasteful.
I liked this line ... "U.S. Navys gigantic Cold Warera Ohio-class submarines..."
The author never saw a Typhoon. They were hugh! 175m, ~50 kilotons. THAT's hugh!
OK, only about 20 feet longer than an Ohio ;-)
Hugh, hugh I tell ya!
COOL!
LOL
How much would that suck?
"Dude, you just got your ass kicked in battle. What happened?"
"It was the flying nun's hat..."
Interesting but do you think it's list worthy?
What an insult to the UAV. Unlike Kennedy, the drone comes back - and it does something useful.
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