Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Can a sub go 115 mph?

["Rick and Marcia" <empiricus@telus.net>]

Baby steps.  That's how we got to the moon.  I love it.

Rick L


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay K. Jeffries" <bottomgun@mindspring.com>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 12:46 PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Can a sub go 115 mph?


> Interesting piece just in the news concerning high speed transport subs,
see
> below.
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> Jay
>
>
>
> Jay K. Jeffries
>
> Andros Is., Bahamas
>
>
> Natura nihil fit in frustra
> - Nature does nothing in vain
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Can a sub go 115 mph?
>
>
> A super fast submarine could be a reality if research by Northrop
Grumman's
> Electronic Systems pans out.
>
>
> By Peter Dujardin <mailto:%20pdujardin@dailypress.com>
> Daily Press
>
> December 27, 2006, 11:05 AM EST
>
> A Northrop Grumman division in Maryland is seeking to develop a technology
> designed to propel small submarines and other manned submersibles up to
115
> mph.
>
> Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, a sister company of the Newport News
> shipyard, won a $46 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research
> Projects Agency, or DARPA, to develop what's being dubbed the "Underwater
> Express" to move both people and specialty cargo.
>
> The speed that's envisioned -- 100 knots, or about 115 mph -- is four
times
> the advertised speed of typical Navy submarines now in the fleet.
>
> "If you can move it at 100 knots in a stable fashion, it would transform
> logistics," said Paul Cabellon, a Northrop spokesman. "It's like going
from
> propeller planes to jet engines. It's that much of a jump in technology to
> get that to work."
>
> Aside from Northrop Grumman, DARPA also tapped General Dynamics Electric
> Boat on a competing $37 million effort to develop an alternative
underwater
> vehicle under the same initiative.
>
> "They'll downselect at some point to one," said Bob Hamilton, an Electric
> Boat spokesman. The company that's chosen will build a working
quarter-scale
> or half scale version of the submersible.
>
> The project is designed to use what's called "supercavitation." That is,
> when an underwater object moves fast enough, a pocket of air forms between
> the hull and the water. That reduces drag on the vessel and increases its
> speed even more.
>
> Or, as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency worded it in a recent
> budget request to Congress: "Supercavitation places the vehicle inside a
> cavity where vapor replaces the water, and viscosity is reduced by orders
of
> magnitude, thus reducing the power requirement dramatically."
>
> That is, there's far less drag cutting through the air than cutting
through
> the water. The supercavitation technology, Cabellon said, is not new. In
> fact, the Russians used it in the 1960s to design an underwater torpedo
that
> can cut through the water more quickly than most torpedoes.
>
> But the new technology, if developed, would go well beyond that,
> particularly with more advanced steering and guidance capabilities.
>
> The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said it plans to operate the
> vessel close to the surface and pump additional air from the vessel into
the
> cavity -- both steps designed to make it operate even more efficiently.
>
> Only about 10 people are now working full time on the project for
Northrop,
> though that could ramp up as the project gets going. Northrop Grumman
> Newport News, a builder of nuclear powered submarines, is so far not
> participating in the project.
>
> Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems fared poorly in its last submarine
> building project, the Advanced Seal Delivery System, or ASDS. The U.S.
> Special Operations Command canceled the program after delays, overruns and
> malfunctions in the first vessel.
>
> Aside from General Dynamics, based in Falls Church, and Northrop's
> Electronic Systems division, based in Annapolis, Md., other team members
> will be included, too.
>
> Pennsylvania State University will participate in the project, as will the
> University of Minnesota, the University of Maryland, the Navy's Naval
> Undersea Warfare Center, in Newport, RI, and BBN Technologies, of
Cambridge,
> Mass.
>
> In the first phase of the contract, to run until late 2007 and worth $5.4
> million to Northrop, the team is set to demonstrate the feasibility of the
> technology and produce a conceptual design.
>
> Then, if all goes well, there are two 15-month optional phases.
>
> In the first option, worth $17 million to Northrop, the team would
establish
> the detailed design for the underwater. In the third option, worth $23.4
> million to Northrop, the team would actually build a demonstration vehicle
> that could operate at 100 knots for up to 10 minutes.
>
>
>
>




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