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Old 04-08-11, 10:43 AM   #6
Gargamel
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Molon Labe View Post

1. I'm troubled by the lack of passive sonar. Not a good one for finding SSKs, I know that's wasted effort (and cost). But a relatively weak one, I would guess anyways, would be useful for keeping track of a sprinting SSK that's trying to shake you loose, as well as help with identifying false returns.
I agree with this, but I'm not sure on how accurate automated classification is with this type of system. I've heard reports on both ends of the spectrum.

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2. What the heck is this thing going to be powered by? The "speed penalty" is so low on the scoring compared to maintaining contact with multiple sensors that it seems it's expected to cruise around at 20+ knots whenever not in contact.
I thought that too. I would have to imagine they run at like 8-10 knots when not in tracking mode, so they have fuel to actually track. But from the DARPA mission specs, these things seem to have global range, and I dont know of any craft that has global range and then has power to conduct extended high speed ops for long periods of time, that isn't nuclear. And right now (if ever), there's no way they could convince anybody that an automated nuclear drone is a good idea.

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4. How will the targets (and their respective nations) react to this new trailing method? Will being blasted with MF active continuously from the time they leave port to the time they return cause any psychological issues for the crew (sleep deprivation?). Will destroying one of these create enough of an international incident that the target nation's forces would be deterred from doing so?
How would the US react if somebody shot down one of their spy drones right now? They might go "hey! Don't do that!". I really think it might become common to see other nations taking out or merely disabling these drones.
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