So where is sub-tech going?

kschang · 03-23-06, 04:58 AM

Haven't seen too many future extrapolations of submarine technology by the authors so far. Seems like everybody who writes is based in present, or past. The only two writing about future seems to be Joe Buff and Michael DiMercurio.

(if I missed some, let me know!)

Joe Buff's future: ceramic hull subs that dive deeper and go faster than anything that came before, surface ships can't even touch them. Only another sub, specifically another ceramic hull sub, can kill them, but only if it has some super-duper sonar tech like that acoustic VR thingie.

Hmmm... Building a ceramic hull isn't THAT hard, I suppose, and his super-subs aren't that different from the present day subs, albeit the sensors are definitely upgraded and the signal processing that goes into it to produce a VR environment based on sound alone is interesting to say the least.

Michael DiMercurio's future: Vortex torpedoes with plasma warheads that's so ****ing powerful, you're done for even with a near miss, but not much sonar improvement or even basic weapons besides the Vortex torps. Vortex torps are blue-laser guided, and runs at super-cavitation speed of 200+ knots. Basically, they are nukes without the fallout. Yeah. One sub before had polymer injection system, but never mentioned again. Then there's this AI driven sub... That basically had a psychosis. Everybody else (namely, the Japanese) had nice torps that are much better than American torps ,which are still some derivatives of ADCAPs, besides the Vortex torps.

While supercavitation torp isn't new (the Russian Shkval?) the lack of developement of some super torpedo that's loads better than ADCAP is somewhat surprising. Is the problem solely limited to bore (i.e. torpedo tube) size? What happened to the polymer injection system? Or the AI?

03-23-06, 04:58 AM	#1
kschang Watch Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 26 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	So where is sub-tech going? Haven't seen too many future extrapolations of submarine technology by the authors so far. Seems like everybody who writes is based in present, or past. The only two writing about future seems to be Joe Buff and Michael DiMercurio. (if I missed some, let me know!) Joe Buff's future: ceramic hull subs that dive deeper and go faster than anything that came before, surface ships can't even touch them. Only another sub, specifically another ceramic hull sub, can kill them, but only if it has some super-duper sonar tech like that acoustic VR thingie. Hmmm... Building a ceramic hull isn't THAT hard, I suppose, and his super-subs aren't that different from the present day subs, albeit the sensors are definitely upgraded and the signal processing that goes into it to produce a VR environment based on sound alone is interesting to say the least. Michael DiMercurio's future: Vortex torpedoes with plasma warheads that's so ****ing powerful, you're done for even with a near miss, but not much sonar improvement or even basic weapons besides the Vortex torps. Vortex torps are blue-laser guided, and runs at super-cavitation speed of 200+ knots. Basically, they are nukes without the fallout. Yeah. One sub before had polymer injection system, but never mentioned again. Then there's this AI driven sub... That basically had a psychosis. Everybody else (namely, the Japanese) had nice torps that are much better than American torps ,which are still some derivatives of ADCAPs, besides the Vortex torps. While supercavitation torp isn't new (the Russian Shkval?) the lack of developement of some super torpedo that's loads better than ADCAP is somewhat surprising. Is the problem solely limited to bore (i.e. torpedo tube) size? What happened to the polymer injection system? Or the AI?