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WWII U-Boats Hit Close To Home
Discovery-News.com: Did you know German subs were parked just a few miles from our beaches, hunting merchant ships during World War II? Jorge Ribas gets a history lesson. Discovery-News.com: Did you know German subs were parked just a few miles from our beaches, hunting merchant ships during World War II... more
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Cocaine smugglers turn to submarines, feds say - CNN.com
The capture of two cocaine-laden semi-submarines in the past week has highlighted the increasing use of the vessels, which now transport one-third of illicit drugs in the eastern Pacific, a major route between Colombia and the United States, U.S. authorities said Friday.
The first seizure occurred September 12, when a Coast Guard team, under cover of darkness, boarded a 59-foot semi-submersible 370 nautical miles southwest of Guatemala.
The startled Colombian smugglers reversed the vessel in an effort to throw the boarding party overboard, but the Coast Guard was able to seize the craft, its four-person crew and its 237 bales of cocaine.
Just five days later, on Wednesday morning, a 60-foot semi-submersible was seized about 200 nautical miles south of Guatemala. As the boarding team unloaded the last few bales, the Coast Guard said, the unstable vessel began to take on water through its exhaust vents and sank.
Each boat carried about 7 tons of cocaine worth $196 million.
U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Administration officials say South American drug cartels are turning to semi-submersible vessels, which have a low profile to avoid detection, because of the government's success at thwarting other smuggling techniques, including the use of fishing trawlers and speed boats.
Between 2000 and 2007, U.S. authorities said, there were 23 drug sub "events" that they know of. But the number of sightings has mushroomed. There have been 62 events in the first three quarters of fiscal 2008, officials said.
"This is a serious threat that is growing, both in volume of cocaine shipped and in sophistication of the craft," said Rear Adm. Joseph R. Castillo, the Coast Guard's director of response policy.
The Coast Guard has captured only a small number of the vessels known or believed to have crossed the area, it said. In some cases, the crews have scuttled the semi-subs to avoid prosecution.
Coast Guard officials say the semi-subs typically are built in the jungles of Colombia, are 25 to 65 feet long, have crews of four or five people and are capable of speeds of up to 13 knots with a range of over 5,000 nautical miles.
The vessels' low profile makes them extraordinarily hard to detect, either visually or by radar. Intelligence played a role in the two most recent busts, officials said.
Locating semi-subs "is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack," said Michael Braun, chief of operations for the DEA. "When you look at the vast amount of sea that they have to patrol to find these things, we're talking about an area, I believe, that's twice the size of the United States."
U.S. Drug Czar John Walters said Friday that the success in capturing subs has contributed to a reduced supply of cocaine on U.S. streets, evidenced by high cocaine prices and declining quality.
"Today we are now over 20 months into significant and sustained shortages of cocaine on the streets of the United States," Walters said. "Last year alone, workplace drug testing [that returned positive] for cocaine dropped 19 percent. This is closing the vise. And in the process of closing the vise, [smugglers] have tried new techniques."
Walters said smugglers are reluctant to sail on the semi-subs because they are dangerous.
"Some of them are little better then death traps, which is the degree to which they've been pressed to try to continue this deadly trade, even though they can't keep up."
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The Coast Guard and the drug czar support legislation to impose stiff penalties for operating a semi-sub on the open seas.
"We want to criminalize the use of these in the high seas so that it's not OK to just scuttle them, get rid of the drugs and be free from prosecution," Walters said. The capture of two cocaine-laden semi-submarines in the past week has highlighted the increasing use of the vessels, which now transpo... more -
Rise of intelligent robot submarines
Videos of unmanned underwater vehicles taking advantage of advanced sensors and processors for navigation and artificial intelligence.
Navy experts and industry leaders are looking into the latest generation of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) for maritime applications ranging from training and mission rehearsal, undersea surveys and surveillance, locating and destroying enemy mines, and potentially even covertly deploying weapons.
For the past three decades U.S. Navy experts have relied on unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs), first as programmable targets to train anti-submarine warfare (ASW) crews on surface ships, and later as remote sensing platforms. Today the Navy is increasing its use of UUVs for counter-mine warfare, and is beginning to use autonomous undersea vehicles to map the ocean floors, locate submerged wrecks and obstacles, and occasionally to find and photograph underwater archeological sites.
In the future, advances in machine intelligence, closed-system propulsion, long-life rechargeable batteries, digital data storage, through-water communications, and rugged-environment embedded digital signal processing promise a era in UUV applications, which are expected to include surveillance and reconnaissance; relocatable covert communications and networking nodes; electronic warfare; anti-submarine tracking; and perhaps even weapons delivery.
The world's oceans continue to be increasingly dangerous places, so military and commercial maritime interests will keep looking to autonomous watercraft to keep humans out of harm's way in the unforgiving environment of the sea. Videos of unmanned underwater vehicles taking advantage of advanced sensors and processors for navigation and artificial intelligence.... more -
Iran Produces Smart Submarine
Iran's defense minister said this Sub would "remarkably increase" their military capabilities.
Is the world in an arms race? Iran's defense minister said this Sub would "remarkably increase" their military capabilities. ... more -
Russian sub sets world record in Lake Baikal dive
A Russian mini-submarine reached the bottom of Lake Baikal on Tuesday, setting a record for the deepest dive in a lake, expedition organisers said.
"The Mir-2 has reached the bottom of Lake Baikal at a depth of 1,680 metres (5,512 feet)," ITAR-TASS reported from the barge where the submarine was diving from. The dive "has set a record for submersion in freshwater," Vesti-24 said.
The scientific expedition is being organised by Artur Chilingarov, a pro-Kremlin member of parliament and an Arctic explorer who led the submarine team that planted a Russian flag at the bottom of the North Pole last August.
You remember, the one where they cut in scenes from the film 'Titanic' into the footage. A Russian mini-submarine reached the bottom of Lake Baikal on Tuesday, setting a record for the deepest dive in a lake, expedition org... more -
Robot submarine gliding across the Atlantic Ocean
An unmanned submersible operated by Rutgers University's Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory (COOL) is "flying" -- underwater -- from New Jersey to Spain. The remote-controlled undersea glider will travel more than 3,800 miles, and will collect key scientific information on the temperature and salinity of the Atlantic Ocean.
"The big advantage is, it's totally unmanned," according to Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which sponsors the submersible. "It's very efficient and can be used to obtain the same kind of data we gather from ships."
In general, sea gliders are Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) that use small changes in buoyancy in conjunction with wings to convert vertical motion to horizontal, and thereby propel themselves forward with very low power consumption. While not as fast as conventional AUVs with propulsion systems, gliders using buoyancy-based propulsion represent a significant increase in range and endurance compared to vehicles propelled by electric motor-driven propellers. The sea glider has a battery-powered data collection and satellite communication system. The U.S. Navy as well as NOAA have been developing such sea gliders for several years.
During its trans-Atlantic cruise the glider will periodically rise to the surface of the ocean to transmit data up to a satellite. But most of the time the COOL glider will travel at depths between 15 feet to 300 feet below the surface. The COOL researchers will share all collected oceanographic data with the Navy and other interested agencies. The lack of a propulsion system will aid in data collection, alleviating self-noise interference.
The Navy is also looking into glider-type AUVs -- which it calls UUVs for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles -- for several missions, primarily to undertake environmental measurements in areas where surface ships or aircraft (dropping sensors) cannot easily operate. And, of course, flotillas of such unmanned gliders would be much cheaper than manned research ships and craft.
The COOL-developed submersible is yellow, less than 8 feet long, and weighs about 130 pounds. Developed by Rutgers University, the craft will also provide the university with other important information, such as how long the craft’s batteries will last and systems reliability. Larger and more capable AUV/UUVs are being developed by the Navy under the auspices of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s systems center in San Diego and the Office of Naval Research.
According to the 2000 Program Guide to the U.S. Navy, the highest priority missions for Navy UUVs, presumably including gliders, are intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; mine countermeasures (i.e., locating and mapping mines); and anti-submarine warfare. Sea gliders could be very useful in collecting environmental information for ASW operations. An unmanned submersible operated by Rutgers University's Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory (COOL) is "flying" -- und... more -
Cocaine-packed homemade submarine seized in Mexico
Mexico's navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast on Wednesday and arrested its four-man crew.
Similar vessels carrying cocaine have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but navy spokesman Capt. Benjamin Mar said the seizure is a first for Mexico.
The 30-foot makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles off the southern state of Oaxaca, Mar said.
The green-topped, arrowhead-shaped vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours later, and the crew was taken into custody without resistance.
The suspects were flown by helicopter to the city of Huatulco, where they told reporters they left the Colombian coastal town of Buenaventura a week ago.
The crew members said they were fishermen forced to make the journey by drug traffickers who threatened to harm their families. Mexico's navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast on Wednesday and arrested its four-man c... more -
UK nuclear submarines understaffed
Sky News has learned that the boats including those carrying the country's Trident missiles are putting to sea with as little as 85% of their intended crew complement.
Forty years ago next month the Royal Navy took over the task of carrying the country's ultimate threat.
At least one 17,000 tonne "Vanguard" class submarine is always somewhere at sea, ready to launch a devastating missile strike.
Despite a recent pay bonus, making submariners Britain's highest-earning sailors, a manning shortage means that across the undersea fleet more than one job in six is vacant. Sky News has learned that the boats including those carrying the country's Trident missiles are putting to sea with as little as ... more -
The name is Car. Submarine Car.
"The sQuba can plow through the water at a depth of 30 feet and has electrical motors to turn the underwater screw.
The car has an open top, meaning that the two passengers are exposed to the elements.
Passengers will be able to keep breathing underwater through an integrated tank of compressed air similar to what is used in scuba diving.
The sQuba's top speed on land is about 77 mph, but it slows down to 3 mph on the surface of the water, and 1.8 mph underwater." "The sQuba can plow through the water at a depth of 30 feet and has electrical motors to turn the underwater screw. ... more -
New Ohio class submarine debuts...minus the nukes =D
It has 24 launch tubes, 15 of which have been fitted for multiple Tomahawks — more than 100 in total.
That's more than were launched in the entire first Persian Gulf War
The switch to conventional missiles is a concept borne of necessity.
Under a 1992 disarmament treaty, the U.S. Navy had to give up four of its 18 "boomers," huge submarines that have for decades served as mobile launch platforms for long-range nuclear missiles and were primary players in the Cold War game of cat-and-mouse between Washington and Moscow.
While Russia continues to be a factor, China now has the biggest submarine fleet in the region, with nearly 60
China's subs are mainly diesel-powered, meaning they must come up for air more frequently than U.S. nuclear-powered vessels, and their crews are not believed to be as well trained as American submariners, who spend several months at a time at sea.
China's fleet is also highly focused on patrolling its own coastal waters and on dealing with potential hostilities over Taiwan, rather than with "projecting force," or trying to control faraway shipping lanes.
Over the next few months, the Ohio will be making a very public statement, training intensively in some of the world's most crowded and contested waters and joining in exercises with America's Asian allies.
Instead of hiding them, the Ohio will be showcasing its abilities to elude detection and operate too deeply and quickly to be tracked.
-hilarity ensues It has 24 launch tubes, 15 of which have been fitted for multiple Tomahawks — more than 100 in total. ... more -
Swiss car lets motorists drive underwater
In "The Spy Who Loved Me," James Bond takes his sports car underwater, swaps his wheels for fins and fires a missile that knocks a pursuing helicopter out of the sky.
Roger Moore's feats as the iconic British spy may be difficult to match, but a Swiss company says it has created a vehicle that really can turn into a submarine — though without the firearms. In "The Spy Who Loved Me," James Bond takes his sports car underwater, swaps his wheels for fins and fires a missile that kn... more -
Bush can't exempt Navy in sonar
Bush signed a waiver Jan. 15 attempting to exempt the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California.
A federal judged ruled today (Monday) that President Bush cannot exempt the Navy from environmental laws banning sonar training that opponents argue harms whales.
YAY! Score for the environment! Bush signed a waiver Jan. 15 attempting to exempt the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction crea... more -
More cocaine submarines!
This new pair of submarines can carry five tons of cocaine under the water!
"Captured workers described how they had sweated at gun-point to meet a Christmas deadline set by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the terrorist group that controls up to a third of the country and trades cocaine for weapons. The workers have not been charged with any crime..."
What will those crazy FARC rebels think of next? This new pair of submarines can carry five tons of cocaine under the water! ... more -
Nuclear sub goes uninspected; Navy denies risk
Crew members on the nuclear sub USS Hampton faked inspection records for the cooling system of the nuclear reactor.
Better hope the guy responsible for checking the fire extinguishers did HIS job. Crew members on the nuclear sub USS Hampton faked inspection records for the cooling system of the nuclear reactor. ... more -
Luxury Submarine For Sale
Because James Bond is your hero and you happen to have $78,000,000.00 burning a hole in your pocket.
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Personal Submarines Now Thankfully A Reality
It's about time, I start my new job as boss of Sealab next week and I had no idea how I was going to get to the office.
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Russians plant flag under North Pole
Russian submariners plant a Russian flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole, and exclaim, "Hah! Now it's ours!"
(Someone got a good Soviet Russia joke for this one?) Russian submariners plant a Russian flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole, and exclaim, "Hah! Now it's ours!" ... more -
Submarines - Rich people buy the craziest things!
It boggles my mind that there are already 100 private submarines out there beneath the waves.
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