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The Navy’s Swimming Spy Plane [meet the water-launched unmanned enforcer]
Popular Science ^ | February 2006 | By Bill Sweetman

Posted on 02/23/2006 12:18:37 PM PST by aculeus

Lockheed Martin’s 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. Navy’s gigantic Cold War–era 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 wide—not exactly airplane-shaped. The Cormorant has to be strong enough to withstand the pressure 150 feet underwater—enough to cave in hatches on a normal aircraft—but 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 Works’s 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 Cormorant’s 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.


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: billsweetman; cormorant; darpa; lockheed; skunkworks; submarines; uavs
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1 posted on 02/23/2006 12:18:38 PM PST by aculeus
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To: aculeus

Looks like the Flying nun's hat...


2 posted on 02/23/2006 12:19:45 PM PST by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: aculeus

Will they be named after Ted kennedy?.........


3 posted on 02/23/2006 12:20:23 PM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him...)
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To: aculeus; SandRat

BTTT


4 posted on 02/23/2006 12:20:24 PM PST by Fiddlstix (Tagline Repair Service. Let us fix those broken Taglines. Inquire within(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Lx

I wasn't aware the Ohio's weren't still doing laps with nukes.


5 posted on 02/23/2006 12:21:17 PM PST by oldleft
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To: aculeus

I like the fires left behind.


6 posted on 02/23/2006 12:22:10 PM PST by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: stevie_d_64

ping


7 posted on 02/23/2006 12:22:32 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: aculeus
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.

Seems simple enough.

Even under combat conditions, I don't see anything complicated enough to go wrong with this scenario.

8 posted on 02/23/2006 12:24:17 PM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government "job" attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: aculeus
Sounds cool, but parts of this story and its slant are just plain bravo sierra.

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.

9 posted on 02/23/2006 12:26:50 PM PST by Jeff Head (www.dragonsfuryseries.com)
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To: aculeus

10 posted on 02/23/2006 12:27:12 PM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: aculeus

Alright...move over top gun, you're about the be replaced by a nerd who got his training on an X-Box.


11 posted on 02/23/2006 12:31:10 PM PST by CWOJackson (Tancredo? Wasn't he the bounty hunter in Star Wars?)
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To: All
And I'm thinking that the one thing combat aircraft return with more of than they left with is...holes. Maybe they will also use those cans of nifty hole-filling gel like when you get a flat on your bike.

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.

12 posted on 02/23/2006 12:33:25 PM PST by SpitfyrAce
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To: Jeff Head

I liked this line ... "U.S. Navy’s gigantic Cold War–era 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 ;-)


13 posted on 02/23/2006 12:34:46 PM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitor)
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To: Blueflag

Hugh, hugh I tell ya!


14 posted on 02/23/2006 12:37:30 PM PST by RightCanuck (Not right enough.)
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To: aculeus

COOL!


15 posted on 02/23/2006 12:37:45 PM PST by Publius6961 (Multiculturalism is the white flag of a dying country)
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To: Lx

LOL

How much would that suck?


"Dude, you just got your ass kicked in battle. What happened?"

"It was the flying nun's hat..."


16 posted on 02/23/2006 12:39:45 PM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
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To: Yo-Yo; Lx; martin_fierro; dighton; Constitution Day


Stone-cold killing machine

17 posted on 02/23/2006 12:40:57 PM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
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To: Grampa Dave

Interesting but do you think it's list worthy?


18 posted on 02/23/2006 12:41:32 PM PST by ASA Vet (Those who know don't talk, those who talk don't know.)
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To: Red Badger
Will they be named after Ted kennedy?.........

What an insult to the UAV. Unlike Kennedy, the drone comes back - and it does something useful.

19 posted on 02/23/2006 12:41:50 PM PST by Tennessee_Bob ("Those who "abjure" violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.")
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To: Yo-Yo
This was already done in the early 60's.


20 posted on 02/23/2006 12:43:21 PM PST by C210N (Bush SPYED, Terrorists DIED!)
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