Navy testing Orca sub drone

@Scott52

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We’ve come a long way, a submersible Tesla at sea!
As an autonomous spy craft it’s pretty cool.
It was only a matter of time before we had sea going drones.
I’m surprised it’s Boeing and not General Dynamics Electric Boat.
Thanks for sharing.
They’ve been busy since I left! Won’t find that in Jane’s Fighting Ships!

2 Likes

I read this vessel is not juat for spying, vut also can lay mines. I couldnt figure what the mast is - if it is photonics or a snorkel.

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Just guessing but if it’s diesel electric, they gotta expel that smoke somehow while charging the batteries!
However, if we’ve come this far, it could be smokeless diesel!

Awhile back I remember reading about some country making a diesel electric sub that could recharge under water using compressed liquid oxygen. Seems like that system would be useful for a spy drone.

This to me looks more like some kind of periscope maybe with an optical sensor and/or an antennae maybe for spying on radio traffic and sending/receiving information via satellite?