plawolf
Lieutenant General
I am surprise that this has not been posted yet, but saw a truly fascinating piece nearly a month ago.
It is still in the earliest phases of concept proving, but this new technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the sonar game.
Subs designed with a more practical example of this shield could potentially be totally invisible to active sonar attempts to find them.
Whether this technology would work in keeping sound from escaping is more questionable, so it probably does not mean all the quiet technologies developed for subs are no obsolete. But since targeting requires active sonar to get the required accuracy, having a sub with such an acoustic cloaking shell will still render pretty much every existing anti-sub weapon other than the depth charge useless.
Such shells applied to naval mine warfare would probably have a far more fundamental impact, as such cloaked mines would be near impossible to find with any existing technology, and the technology could easily be applied in its current form for such devices with not much more R&D required.
It is still in the earliest phases of concept proving, but this new technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the sonar game.
Subs designed with a more practical example of this shield could potentially be totally invisible to active sonar attempts to find them.
Whether this technology would work in keeping sound from escaping is more questionable, so it probably does not mean all the quiet technologies developed for subs are no obsolete. But since targeting requires active sonar to get the required accuracy, having a sub with such an acoustic cloaking shell will still render pretty much every existing anti-sub weapon other than the depth charge useless.
Such shells applied to naval mine warfare would probably have a far more fundamental impact, as such cloaked mines would be near impossible to find with any existing technology, and the technology could easily be applied in its current form for such devices with not much more R&D required.
