How long until underwater drones are a common thing?

>>31076732
who says they aren't already

>>31076732

They are.

Fuckin moron. How else did they film inside the Titanic when she's at the bottom?

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>>31076732

The square-cube law kind of fucks with it.

You see, the bigger a ship is, the more fuel efficient per ton of cargo it is, because the volume increases more than the surface area does, and surface area is the main source of drag.

This means that smaller systems are much less effective than larger systems.

Also, you have the question of communication and endurance (into the months, not hours), which are classic problems for RPVs in general and especially difficult underwater.

>>31076732
I'd assume that if submarines carried nukes or weapons capable of destroying vessels, it would be in everyone's best interest if subs remained manned instead of going unmanned.

What happens if you lose communication with your submarine and it's carrying in nukes?

What if an enemy is able to take control of it?

These are serious issues that probably make unmanned submarines a bad idea.

>>31076999
>What happens if you lose communication with your submarine and it's carrying in nukes?

Return/Retrieval protocols?

>Drone: Signal lost
>Drone: Plotting course for port.

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Underwater drones are why I suspect new navy vessels have 530mm torpedo tubes, and 324mm torpedos.

Why have sonar give your position away when a UUV can do it instead?

>>31076732
>what is guided torpedos

>>31076772
duh James Cameron just dived down with a camera

>>31076993
It's less of an issue if they're solar powered though (which is reasonable for unmanned vessels; you can have some sit in the sun for a week to recharge while a sister drone ship goes and performs missions).

>>31076732
When Atlantis attacks.

>>31076999
UUV aren't going to replace full sized subs anytime soon. They are instead used for data collection and a sensor platform that doesn't risk the parent craft. The first place they are being seriously considered is minesweeping.

In most cases these things will be drawing a wire from a 'real' submarine for command and control.

>>31079450
That guy legit went to the bottom of the ocean. Less people have been to the moon.

What about partial automation? For someone who has never been on a submarine crew it's difficult to understand what 130 or more people do, if you automated everything besides bridge crew, cook and doctor the space savings would be immense.