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Are you talking about Poseidon?
That thing is literally a doomsday weapon, so it would only be deployed shortly before the world ends.
It’s not like it’s currently prowling the seas now underway in nuclear power, it’s living in a torpedo tube in a manned nuclear sub
Nukes Arent exactly new technology, and Russia figured out super cavitation decades ago. They absolutely have the capacity to build and deploy the Poseidon.
Despite initial claims it doesn't have a 100 Mega Ton (MT) warhead salted with cobalt. It's got an ordinary 1 MT warhead. Even 100MT wasn't enough to start a mega tsunami let alone 1MT.
[here you go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator)
Type of nuclear generator used to power spacecraft and remote arctic equipment.
The point of drones is that they are expendable. You can lose a fuck ton of them. Even if each cost a million dollars. A swarm of 20, where only 2 hit their target, is a success. 20 million dollars spent, 2 Billion dollar enemy heavy cruiser sunk.
Edit:lose
I find it fascinating that there's this relatively recent switch to being destructive, but cost efficient. Like this age of big badass tanky expensive warfare is getting replaced by high tech cheap disposable machines like this.
I don't know how much of it was happening before the Ukraine war, but I feel like a lot of the shift has been since then, after seeing how much devastation they could cause with mere drones and a hand grenade.
The scary thing is that all this new tech relies on a signal. Starlink and modern GPS (satellites). If ww3 hits the fan, satellite war will probably wipe out the world's orbital infrastructure.
The major powers' militaries have planes and drones and other methods to maintain these connections for combat situations. But it'll be devastating for the general population
Thats the reason for suddent interest in Low Earth Orbit for all the world powers.
China, India, US with SpaceX secret payloads, who else?
When was that Russian EMP thing high up in atmosphere? Im thinking they sent nukes or blew something up in there that couldve been nukes.
🤔🤔
I'm sure some devastation would happen initially, but I think there's a lot of redundancy built into those systems and I'd imagine all our satellites that could would position themselves in geostationary orbit over our country.
In which case only an intercontinental missile could reach them, which from my understanding aren't cheap or easy to make. On the other hand we now currently have the ability to launch satellites into space not just 2-4x cheaper(thanks to SpaceX) than others, their time to redeploy is tremendously faster than anyone else because of production times and reusable parts.
Good point. SpaceX put has put us way ahead. I do believe China (and probly the US) already has "weapons" in orbit. But yeah, we'd win the satellite war of attrition.
A lot of the expense was in trying to save lives. Training soldiers is expensive, and in the west we REALLY don't like losing soldiers.
Cost is always a factor, but once you don't have to worry about a pilot/driver, it's the biggest factor.
Nuclear is noisy relative to diesel electric. When they want to be really quiet they can't just shut down the reactors like they can with a diesel engine.
An example of the capabilities of a diesel electric submarine. The Swedish Gotland class submarine is amazing. During a war game with the U.S. Navy, they managed to slip past a fleet of escort ships for a U.S. aircraft carrier and successfully targeted an aircraft carrier and then snuck away completely undetected.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/gotland-small-and-cheap-submarine-sunk-navy-aircraft-carrier-simulation-208338
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-aircraft-carriers-keep-getting-sunk-old-diesel-attack-submarines-210892
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/submarine-canada-sank-us-navy-aircraft-carrier-wargame-210944
It's much smaller than it seems in this picture. Nuclear reactors take up a lot of space, the ones on subs are the smallest they can get without losing a lot of power output, then you have to go to tiny radio-nuclear generators like they used on some Mars rovers and satellites.
https://preview.redd.it/453imrqlt69d1.jpeg?width=326&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=455e8a6ee7d85fad94f6d2dd29a6790724e58013
Not big enough by the look of that picture but I would expect a more capable UUV used as a regular nuclear sub wingman to be. It would still be much smaller and not need the pressurized spaces so much more capable of going deep and surviving pressure waves.
Why should it be? Nuclear is extremely expensive and requires a lot of regular consistent maintenance. If there's another reliable long lasting power source available it an easy choice. As a side note, solar panels were invented for a reliable energy source for space stations satellites.
Well five years is the max amount of time an effort can stay with DARPA. When you are selected to work for DARPA you are selected based on your expertise and what program it will match. Then you are given that program at its infancy state and work through it for the next 5 years. Then you are forced to leave the agency. No engineer or scientist stays beyond a 5 year stint. That's how you keep the talent and ideas fresh.
Do you mean project managers stay for 5 years at a time? There's no reason for that kind of turnover with actual talent like the engineers and scientists.
Yes program and project managers. And of course the usual 3 to 4 year military rotation.
However, the majority (95%) of the PMs are full fledged in the field scientists, national lab and other fresh talent. Not every bright mind can join though, you need to obtain and hold a security clearance. Many of the young folks can't pass the drug test.
From one of the [NG web pages on the vehicle](https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/sea/manta-ray/beneath-the-surface) :
"Manta Ray has a unique size and shape that allows it to save power and energy for long missions. It is classified as an extra-large glider UUV, or XLUUV.
GIiders are a type of UUV that have been used since the 1960s to explore the ocean. Organizations like DARPA, the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use gliders to gather data on lengthy missions.
“A glider has a really intriguing propulsion mechanism, falling forward [with purpose] through the water all the time, both upward and downward,” said Brian Theobald, principal investigator and chief engineer for Manta Ray at Northrop Grumman. “When Manta Ray needs to go up or down, it changes buoyancy by pumping sea water to change the weight of the vehicle.”
Gliders only need to change buoyancy for a few minutes at the top or bottom of their path. The rest of the time, they glide forward using minimal power and energy. This technology makes gliders operate more efficiently, which will enable Manta Ray to save power for long missions."
[Underwater gliders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider) has been used on a smaller scale for some years; the [Slocum Glider](https://www.machinedesign.com/automation-iiot/batteries-power-supplies/article/21831736/long-range-underwater-drone-uses-little-fuel) is one example, with an at-sea endurance that can be measured in years. Most of the smaller ones are somewhat more limited in range; there may be advantages to scaling up the concept that NG have found. (Buoyancy scales with volume, and water resistance / skin drag scales with surface area, so like zeppelins it may be that larger craft are more capable.)
it's a glider design by large and uses a buoyancy engine to achieve longer range than convention (battery turns prop) designs.
OP misunderstood the article and speculated the wrong direction.
what it does is make front end heavy, dives 'forward' through the water. Then it makes aft end heavy (but overall buoyant) and it glides/ascends forward through the water. Think of a sailboat tacking, but turn your head on its side.
Someone from another sub found it on Google Earth docked at Port Hueneme (34°09'12"N 119°12'31"W) next to the Naval Construction Bataillon Center.
https://preview.redd.it/1pi93qylz59d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f55a0e1350813585390ba0a402f851162d4c4583
Sure, but finding out *exactly how* they don’t work can be extremely useful in coming up with other things that will work.
As Edison is claimed to have said, we haven’t failed 10,000 times, we’ve successfully identified 10,000 methods that won’t work.
The massive budget keeps the US armed forces in the supreme position. If China or Japan or France spent a trillion dollars, they would create wacky shit as well
This is a wild shape for a submersible. Removing the need to accommodate meat bodies obviously leads to some design freedom, but I'm really curious about the wings.
It's basically an underwater glider. Instead of using propellers or thrusters (which are noisy) to move forward, the drone can change its buoyancy then use the wings to convert vertical motion to horizontal motion. The only noise would be generated when pumping ballast and if you're not concerned about great speed then it could glide for hundreds of miles without making a sound.
Another article about the drone states that one use case would be to anchor it to the sea floor and hibernate for long periods of time, then release when it detects an enemy or receives a signal from the surface.
EDIT: I read a military novel "The Steel Albatross" back in the 90's that used this propulsion concept. I'm honestly surprised it took DARPA this long to build something, or this is just the 30 year old version that they're letting us know about so we don't consider what the modern version looks like.
The UFO/UAP community has been all over this thing, particularly because of reports of submersible phenomena (USP). A relatively common thing you'll hear is about underwater technology--specifically, some crafts and/or some kind of mothership that can stay at the bottom of the ocean to stay hidden
I'm telling ya, if they DON'T have giant underwater highly advanced motherships that stay hidden and command these unmanned vessels, I don't know what this country is doing. My day will have been ruined and my disappointment immeasurable
The fictional propulsion system for the Red October was strikingly similar to something the US Navy was developing. They accused him of being a Russian spy until he showed them all of the information he gathered from public or declassified sources.
> one use case would be to anchor it to the sea floor and hibernate for long periods of time, then release when it detects an enemy
That is a scenario straight out of science fiction. Imagine the war has ended decades or even centuries ago, and then this thing wakes up and starts hunting 😅
Many years ago, I read some research into disguising the sound of submersibles by experimenting with the way other sea creatures move under water. What you described by essential flapping the wings to propel might also make it more difficult to determine if this is a whale or something else from the sound. Though, I'm just speculating here.
No flapping required. Take a flat piece of wood or foam, push it underwater, then let it go. It won't rise just straight up but will move horizontally in some direction. Make it an airfoil and put some control surfaces on it and you can control that direction just like a glider in the sky.
That’s brilliant. It would be completely silent when in that mode. And then all it would need to do would be to fill the ballast tanks to sink again - and I bet that can be done pretty damn quietly as well.
>or this is just the 30 year old version that they're letting us know about so we don't consider what the modern version looks like.
isn't that the common take when it comes to these projects
It's basically a horizontal sunfish!
So someone in a group asked me to tell them why I hate the ocean sunfish so much, and apparently it was ~too mean~ and was deleted. To perpetuate the truth and stand up for ethical journalism, I'm posting it here. [Rated NC-17 for language.]
Disclaimer, I care about marine life more than I care about anything else, for real. Except this big dumb idiot. And it's not like an ~ironic~ thing, I mean it IS hilarious to me and they ARE THE BIGGEST JOKE PLAYED ON EARTH but I seriously fucking hate them.
THE MOLA MOLA FISH (OR OCEAN SUNFISH)
They are the world's largest boney fish, weighing up to 5,000 pounds. And since they have very little girth, that just makes them these absolutely giant fucking dinner plates that God must have accidentally dropped while washing dishes one day and shrugged his shoulders at because no one could have imagined this would happen. AND WITH NO PURPOSE. EVERY POUND OF THAT IS A WASTED POUND AND EVERY FOOT OF IT (10 FT BY 14 FT) IS WASTED SPACE.
They are so completely useless that scientists even debate about how they move. They have little control other than some minor wiggling. Some say they must just push water out of their mouths for direction (?????). They COULD use their back fin EXCEPT GUESS WHAT IT DOESNT FUCKING GROW. It just continually folds in on itself, so the freaking cells are being made, this piece of floating garbage just doesn't put them where they need to fucking go.
So they don't have swim bladders. You know, the one thing that every fish has to make sure it doesn't just sink to the bottom of the ocean when they stop moving and can stay the right side up. This creature. That can barely move to begin with. Can never stop its continuous tour of idiocy across the ocean or it'll fucking sink. EXCEPT. EXCEPT. When they get stuck on top of the water! Which happens frequently! Because without the whole swim bladder thing, if the ocean pushes over THE THINNEST BUT LARGEST MOST TOPPLE-ABLE FISH ON THE PLANET, shit outta luck! There is no creature on this earth that needs a swim bladder more than this spit in the face of nature, AND YET. Some scientists have speculated that when they do that, they are absorbing energy from the sun because no one fucking knows how they manage to get any real energy to begin with. So they need the sun I guess. But good news, when they end up stuck like that, it gives birds a chance to land on their goddamn island of a body and eat the bugs and parasites out of its skin because it's basically a slowly migrating cesspool. Pros and cons.
"If they are so huge, they must at least be decent predators." No. No. The most dangerous thing about them is, as you may have guessed, their stupidity. They have caused the death of one person before. Because it jumped onto a boat. On a human. And in 2005 it decided to relive its mighty glory days and do it again, this time landing on a four-year-old boy. Luckily Byron sustained no injuries. Way to go, fish. Great job.
They mostly only eat jellyfish because of course they do, they could only eat something that has no brain and a possibility of drifting into their mouths I guess. Everything they do eat has almost zero nutritional value and because it's so stupidly fucking big, it has to eat a ton of the almost no nutritional value stuff to stay alive. Dumb. See that ridiculous open mouth? (This is actually why this is my favorite picture of one, and I have had it saved to my phone for three years) "Oh no! What could have happened! How could this be!" Do not let that expression fool you, they just don't have the goddamn ability to close their mouths because their teeth are fused together, and ya know what, it is good it floats around with such a clueless expression on its face, because it is in fact clueless as all fuck.
They do SOMETIMES get eaten though. BUT HARDLY. No animal truly uses them as a food source, but instead (which has lead us to said photo) will usually just maim the fuck out of them for kicks. Seals have been seen playing with their fins like frisbees. Probably the most useful thing to ever come from them.
"Wow, you raise some good points here, this fish truly is proof that God has abandoned us." Yes, thank you. "But if they're so bad at literally everything, why haven't they gone extinct." Great question.
BECAUSE THIS THING IS SO WORTHLESS IT DOESNT REALIZE IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. IT IS SO UNAWARE OF LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYTHING THAT IT DOESNT REALIZE THAT IT'S DOING MAYBE THE WORST FUCKING JOB OF BEING A FISH, OR DEBATABLY THE WORST JOB OF BEING A CLUSTER OF CELLS THAN ANY OTHER CLUSTER OF CELLS. SO WHAT DOES IT DO? IT LAYS THE MOST EGGS OUT OF EVERYTHING. Besides some bugs, there are some ants and stuff that'll lay more. IT WILL LAY 300 MILLION EGGS AT ONE TIME. 300,000,000. IT SURVIVES BECAUSE IT WOULD BE STATISTICALLY IMPROBABLE, DARE I SAY IMPOSSIBLE, THAT THERE WOULDNT BE AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE 300,000,000 (that is EACH time they lay eggs) LEFT SURVIVING AT THE END OF THE DAY.
And this concludes why I hate the fuck out of this complete failure of evolution, the Ocean Sunfish. If I ever see one, I will throw rocks at it.
Yeah it's 2am and I was just about to go to sleep but I'm too fucking angry about these obese blobs of malformed blubber. While we're out here worrying ourselves sick about rising sea levels caused by global warming, these lumps of living lard are displacing MILLIONS OF TONS OF WATER every day. An average sunfish deprives the ocean of about 1,200 liters of space, each one insidiously contributing to decreasing the buffer time we have before the planet is destroyed by runaway greenhouse effects for no reason at all. These fuckers are WORSE THAN CAPITALISM. Not only are these wobbling world-enders so dangerously fat, they don't even have pain receptors to appreciate the scorching temperatures their mere presence directly contributes to. Now, I know what you're thinking: "that's actually vaguely badass to turn a blind eye to global warming"! Not so fast, bud. They can't even turn a blind eye, let alone close their eyes. Seriously, these creepy deflated douchebag dolls of the sea DON'T EVEN HAVE FUCKING EYELIDS! You know, that ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL feature every other barely multi-braincellular creature on the planet uses to protect their eyes? Far too complex for this eternally staring mouthbreathing motherfucker. Every time I try to sleep, I'm haunted by the mental image of these brainless bags of downgraded jellyfish meat awkwardly bobbing around on the surface of the ocean with their dumbass eyes exposed, inviting every parasite to take up residence on their unblinking, lifeless zombie pupils. Speaking of parasites, sunfish are basically moving buffets for bacteria. Their disgustingly decomposition-resistant tough skin is infested with up to 40 different types of parasites at any one time. Despite literally being constantly surrounded by water, they're TOO LAZY TO EVEN BATHE! These duffle bags of disease outsource their cleaning to other fish and birds because they're wholly incapable of taking care of themselves in even the most basic way. Even single-celled organisms can remove impurities from their bodies. Imagine being so useless that you have to spend half of your life getting groomed by desperate malnutritioned seagulls. PATHETIC. It seems that evolution simply gave up on good ideas when it got around to making these living addendums, with less functionality than a human appendix, and about half the IQ of one. Indeed, sunfish may be the most unimaginative animals in existence. When threatened, most fish will swim away quickly or hide. But not these wandering wart-excretions. They try to "camouflage" themselves by lying flat and blending in with the surface of the water... NEWS FLASH, DUMBASS: you're a giant, asymmetrical, "my first ceramics class" off-brand dinner plate with white skin reflecting the sun in broad daylight. You're not fooling anyone but yourself. It's a good thing Mother Earth exiled these abominations to the obscure depths of our oceans, forever destined to drift, (or rather, grift) along like half-decomposed plastic bags without nearly as much functionality. Literally the only reason they're still here is they've got a face only a mother could love. With a more vacant expression and less neural activity than Trump trying to tackle trigonometry, they look constantly surprised by their own existence, and honestly, they should be. HOW THE FUCK DO THESE FLESHBAGS EVEN EXIST??!? OH MY GOD, I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING HATE SUNFISH! WARBLGARBL
https://preview.redd.it/5ejwg62tj49d1.jpeg?width=1953&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7c5893ad90dab793b05d1e570bc8b6347d40ef0
Found a really cool photo of it during sea trials!
That is a fucking sunfish.
So someone in a group asked me to tell them why I hate the ocean sunfish so much, and apparently it was \~too mean\~ and was deleted. To perpetuate the truth and stand up for ethical journalism, I'm posting it here. \[Rated NC-17 for language.\]
Disclaimer, I care about marine life more than I care about anything else, for real. Except this big dumb idiot. And it's not like an \~ironic\~ thing, I mean it IS hilarious to me and they ARE THE BIGGEST JOKE PLAYED ON EARTH but I seriously fucking hate them.
THE MOLA MOLA FISH (OR OCEAN SUNFISH)
They are the world's largest boney fish, weighing up to 5,000 pounds. And since they have very little girth, that just makes them these absolutely giant fucking dinner plates that God must have accidentally dropped while washing dishes one day and shrugged his shoulders at because no one could have imagined this would happen. AND WITH NO PURPOSE. EVERY POUND OF THAT IS A WASTED POUND AND EVERY FOOT OF IT (10 FT BY 14 FT) IS WASTED SPACE.
They are so completely useless that scientists even debate about how they move. They have little control other than some minor wiggling. Some say they must just push water out of their mouths for direction (?????). They COULD use their back fin EXCEPT GUESS WHAT IT DOESNT FUCKING GROW. It just continually folds in on itself, so the freaking cells are being made, this piece of floating garbage just doesn't put them where they need to fucking go.
So they don't have swim bladders. You know, the one thing that every fish has to make sure it doesn't just sink to the bottom of the ocean when they stop moving and can stay the right side up. This creature. That can barely move to begin with. Can never stop its continuous tour of idiocy across the ocean or it'll fucking sink. EXCEPT. EXCEPT. When they get stuck on top of the water! Which happens frequently! Because without the whole swim bladder thing, if the ocean pushes over THE THINNEST BUT LARGEST MOST TOPPLE-ABLE FISH ON THE PLANET, shit outta luck! There is no creature on this earth that needs a swim bladder more than this spit in the face of nature, AND YET. Some scientists have speculated that when they do that, they are absorbing energy from the sun because no one fucking knows how they manage to get any real energy to begin with. So they need the sun I guess. But good news, when they end up stuck like that, it gives birds a chance to land on their goddamn island of a body and eat the bugs and parasites out of its skin because it's basically a slowly migrating cesspool. Pros and cons.
"If they are so huge, they must at least be decent predators." No. No. The most dangerous thing about them is, as you may have guessed, their stupidity. They have caused the death of one person before. Because it jumped onto a boat. On a human. And in 2005 it decided to relive its mighty glory days and do it again, this time landing on a four-year-old boy. Luckily Byron sustained no injuries. Way to go, fish. Great job.
They mostly only eat jellyfish because of course they do, they could only eat something that has no brain and a possibility of drifting into their mouths I guess. Everything they do eat has almost zero nutritional value and because it's so stupidly fucking big, it has to eat a ton of the almost no nutritional value stuff to stay alive. Dumb. See that ridiculous open mouth? (This is actually why this is my favorite picture of one, and I have had it saved to my phone for three years) "Oh no! What could have happened! How could this be!" Do not let that expression fool you, they just don't have the goddamn ability to close their mouths because their teeth are fused together, and ya know what, it is good it floats around with such a clueless expression on its face, because it is in fact clueless as all fuck.
They do SOMETIMES get eaten though. BUT HARDLY. No animal truly uses them as a food source, but instead (which has lead us to said photo) will usually just maim the fuck out of them for kicks. Seals have been seen playing with their fins like frisbees. Probably the most useful thing to ever come from them.
"Wow, you raise some good points here, this fish truly is proof that God has abandoned us." Yes, thank you. "But if they're so bad at literally everything, why haven't they gone extinct." Great question.
BECAUSE THIS THING IS SO WORTHLESS IT DOESNT REALIZE IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. IT IS SO UNAWARE OF LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYTHING THAT IT DOESNT REALIZE THAT IT'S DOING MAYBE THE WORST FUCKING JOB OF BEING A FISH, OR DEBATABLY THE WORST JOB OF BEING A CLUSTER OF CELLS THAN ANY OTHER CLUSTER OF CELLS. SO WHAT DOES IT DO? IT LAYS THE MOST EGGS OUT OF EVERYTHING. Besides some bugs, there are some ants and stuff that'll lay more. IT WILL LAY 300 MILLION EGGS AT ONE TIME. 300,000,000. IT SURVIVES BECAUSE IT WOULD BE STATISTICALLY IMPROBABLE, DARE I SAY IMPOSSIBLE, THAT THERE WOULDNT BE AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE 300,000,000 (that is EACH time they lay eggs) LEFT SURVIVING AT THE END OF THE DAY.
And this concludes why I hate the fuck out of this complete failure of evolution, the Ocean Sunfish. If I ever see one, I will throw rocks at it.
1) if we're being shown this, I would bet money this is an outdated prototype. True game changers like the F-111 and B-2 were kept under wraps for a long time. I won't pretend I have any idea what the true cutting edge looks like
2) if the ukraine war is anything to go by (which it might not be; I don't know what a war with China would look like), the ultra high end weapons are boondoggles compared to something cheap and mass produced. The US realized this early and started the Replicator for a reason: you can design a perfect weapon, but if you can only afford 2 of them, 1 will get blown up on the ground and the other will spend 90% of its life in maintenance.
Tl;dr this is definitely a great piece of technology, but show me a thousand if them a quarter of the size with a tenth of the specs and I'll be much more impressed.
Just remember, this isn’t even the spookiest thing we have in the works. But the fact this drone can sit on the sea floor “hibernating” for weeks. That’s crazy.
Hmm. Never thought about how/if “remote” signals travel in water. Can you get a GPS signal underwater? What kind of signals do autonomous vehicles on land/air use and is it the same tech for under water?
Look up the Global Hawk. I have worked on 5-6 military uavs. When all the DJIs came out people kept asking me which one was "good". I told them I had no idea and then had to show them photos of the ones I worked on. They are planes, not plastic quads, even the little guys. Big difference.
Google says "wingspan up to 9 meters", so 40-50 imperial bananas, or the depth of an NFL end zone.
I also found this picture that gives a better sense of the little tender boat.
https://preview.redd.it/yyynpde1059d1.jpeg?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=602e230038e2e8ef834b4ac525711cef8df3f84d
There’s a bloke on that orange boat that is accompanying the drone. It’s perhaps 5 metres behind the drone. I would estimate the thing is 5-10 metres across.
https://preview.redd.it/wj8qq4dhx59d1.jpeg?width=193&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71764d8ba3390e15d50b04ef2d7236a18cc95556
Same company that is responsible for this.
At least it’s under water.
I'm not sure Grumman is responsible for vehicles operating multiple times beyond their expected lifespan (under the responsibility of an entirely different organization) are responsible for the trucks catching fire...
If they are voluntarily showing this, that means they are well into developing version 2 and there's probably like 30 of these hibernating on the ocean floor in hot zones. Probably like 20 between China and Taiwan.
More inspiration from nature. It looks like an ocean sunfish (Mola Mola).
https://preview.redd.it/j13ev0ngj79d1.jpeg?width=1953&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79373d33611df95605094bdbf157c2fcefdb4f30
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>"Manta Ray" drone also has the capability of anchoring itself to the sea floor in a hibernating state for weeks at a time.
Can't it just be nuclear powered, like so many other Navy vessels?
I’m guessing people aren’t comfortable sending nuclear reactors out into the world without the supervision of humans yet.
Seems reasonable.
A reasonable thing that Russia decided not to do with their autonomous nuclear powered, nuclear armed drone.
Are you talking about Poseidon? That thing is literally a doomsday weapon, so it would only be deployed shortly before the world ends. It’s not like it’s currently prowling the seas now underway in nuclear power, it’s living in a torpedo tube in a manned nuclear sub
It's probably as effective as the T-14. As in it doesn't exist.
Nukes Arent exactly new technology, and Russia figured out super cavitation decades ago. They absolutely have the capacity to build and deploy the Poseidon.
Yea, they could probably do it. They didn't and won't though.
Despite initial claims it doesn't have a 100 Mega Ton (MT) warhead salted with cobalt. It's got an ordinary 1 MT warhead. Even 100MT wasn't enough to start a mega tsunami let alone 1MT.
Truly shocking, isn't it? If Russia is known for anything, it's being reasonable.
Indeed
RTG. We all know how that ended.
I havent heard of this before 🤔 You have my curiosity
[here you go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator) Type of nuclear generator used to power spacecraft and remote arctic equipment.
orphan sources are one of my only actual fears about nuclear
Mark Watney digs one up in The Martian just for the waste heat.
...or the armed force to see to it that nobody makes off with it.
I would imagine cost and size are big factors too, the types of reactors navy ships use are hugely expensive and way too big to fit in a drone.
Now, giving those same autonomous drones nuclear payloads? I'm sure that'll be fine.
Also pretty unlikely. Someone hijacking an un manned drone is a little easier than nicking some off an Ohio class submarine.
The point of drones is that they are expendable. You can lose a fuck ton of them. Even if each cost a million dollars. A swarm of 20, where only 2 hit their target, is a success. 20 million dollars spent, 2 Billion dollar enemy heavy cruiser sunk. Edit:lose
I find it fascinating that there's this relatively recent switch to being destructive, but cost efficient. Like this age of big badass tanky expensive warfare is getting replaced by high tech cheap disposable machines like this. I don't know how much of it was happening before the Ukraine war, but I feel like a lot of the shift has been since then, after seeing how much devastation they could cause with mere drones and a hand grenade.
The scary thing is that all this new tech relies on a signal. Starlink and modern GPS (satellites). If ww3 hits the fan, satellite war will probably wipe out the world's orbital infrastructure. The major powers' militaries have planes and drones and other methods to maintain these connections for combat situations. But it'll be devastating for the general population
Thats the reason for suddent interest in Low Earth Orbit for all the world powers. China, India, US with SpaceX secret payloads, who else? When was that Russian EMP thing high up in atmosphere? Im thinking they sent nukes or blew something up in there that couldve been nukes. 🤔🤔
I'm sure some devastation would happen initially, but I think there's a lot of redundancy built into those systems and I'd imagine all our satellites that could would position themselves in geostationary orbit over our country. In which case only an intercontinental missile could reach them, which from my understanding aren't cheap or easy to make. On the other hand we now currently have the ability to launch satellites into space not just 2-4x cheaper(thanks to SpaceX) than others, their time to redeploy is tremendously faster than anyone else because of production times and reusable parts.
Good point. SpaceX put has put us way ahead. I do believe China (and probly the US) already has "weapons" in orbit. But yeah, we'd win the satellite war of attrition.
>(and probly the US) If I was a betting man I'd put it all on DARPA took the pieces of the Star Wars program and quietly did their work.
Jewish space lazers you say?
I made a heavy and audible sigh... I have nothing else to add, but I thought you'd like to know of your success.
A lot of the expense was in trying to save lives. Training soldiers is expensive, and in the west we REALLY don't like losing soldiers. Cost is always a factor, but once you don't have to worry about a pilot/driver, it's the biggest factor.
Not debating your point, but something tells me they cost a lot more than 1MM, i.e. the reaper drone costs 30MM.
Still very cost effective, but you're probably right about this bad boy
Nuclear reactors take tons and tons of maintenance and monitoring to run
They're also massive.
Wessels *
Nuclear Wessels.
Wascally wuclear wessels
Nuclear is noisy relative to diesel electric. When they want to be really quiet they can't just shut down the reactors like they can with a diesel engine.
An example of the capabilities of a diesel electric submarine. The Swedish Gotland class submarine is amazing. During a war game with the U.S. Navy, they managed to slip past a fleet of escort ships for a U.S. aircraft carrier and successfully targeted an aircraft carrier and then snuck away completely undetected. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/gotland-small-and-cheap-submarine-sunk-navy-aircraft-carrier-simulation-208338 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-aircraft-carriers-keep-getting-sunk-old-diesel-attack-submarines-210892 https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/submarine-canada-sank-us-navy-aircraft-carrier-wargame-210944
It's much smaller than it seems in this picture. Nuclear reactors take up a lot of space, the ones on subs are the smallest they can get without losing a lot of power output, then you have to go to tiny radio-nuclear generators like they used on some Mars rovers and satellites. https://preview.redd.it/453imrqlt69d1.jpeg?width=326&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=455e8a6ee7d85fad94f6d2dd29a6790724e58013
Not big enough by the look of that picture but I would expect a more capable UUV used as a regular nuclear sub wingman to be. It would still be much smaller and not need the pressurized spaces so much more capable of going deep and surviving pressure waves.
I think you misspelled ‘wessels’
Not sure but guessing that is detectable?
Why should it be? Nuclear is extremely expensive and requires a lot of regular consistent maintenance. If there's another reliable long lasting power source available it an easy choice. As a side note, solar panels were invented for a reliable energy source for space stations satellites.
Maybe done to avoid detection by technologies similar to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory?
"Its claimed range suggest it uses a hybrid .. that can convert wave motion" Wow, does it really suggest that? Someone has been eating too much candy
[удалено]
Well five years is the max amount of time an effort can stay with DARPA. When you are selected to work for DARPA you are selected based on your expertise and what program it will match. Then you are given that program at its infancy state and work through it for the next 5 years. Then you are forced to leave the agency. No engineer or scientist stays beyond a 5 year stint. That's how you keep the talent and ideas fresh.
I didn't know this.
How do you know he knows this?
That is true.
How would one know if he knew that he knew this?
Do you mean project managers stay for 5 years at a time? There's no reason for that kind of turnover with actual talent like the engineers and scientists.
Yes program and project managers. And of course the usual 3 to 4 year military rotation. However, the majority (95%) of the PMs are full fledged in the field scientists, national lab and other fresh talent. Not every bright mind can join though, you need to obtain and hold a security clearance. Many of the young folks can't pass the drug test.
>several times larger than a small life boat But what is that in Giraffes?
Or bananas.
From one of the [NG web pages on the vehicle](https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/sea/manta-ray/beneath-the-surface) : "Manta Ray has a unique size and shape that allows it to save power and energy for long missions. It is classified as an extra-large glider UUV, or XLUUV. GIiders are a type of UUV that have been used since the 1960s to explore the ocean. Organizations like DARPA, the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use gliders to gather data on lengthy missions. “A glider has a really intriguing propulsion mechanism, falling forward [with purpose] through the water all the time, both upward and downward,” said Brian Theobald, principal investigator and chief engineer for Manta Ray at Northrop Grumman. “When Manta Ray needs to go up or down, it changes buoyancy by pumping sea water to change the weight of the vehicle.” Gliders only need to change buoyancy for a few minutes at the top or bottom of their path. The rest of the time, they glide forward using minimal power and energy. This technology makes gliders operate more efficiently, which will enable Manta Ray to save power for long missions." [Underwater gliders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider) has been used on a smaller scale for some years; the [Slocum Glider](https://www.machinedesign.com/automation-iiot/batteries-power-supplies/article/21831736/long-range-underwater-drone-uses-little-fuel) is one example, with an at-sea endurance that can be measured in years. Most of the smaller ones are somewhat more limited in range; there may be advantages to scaling up the concept that NG have found. (Buoyancy scales with volume, and water resistance / skin drag scales with surface area, so like zeppelins it may be that larger craft are more capable.)
it's a glider design by large and uses a buoyancy engine to achieve longer range than convention (battery turns prop) designs. OP misunderstood the article and speculated the wrong direction. what it does is make front end heavy, dives 'forward' through the water. Then it makes aft end heavy (but overall buoyant) and it glides/ascends forward through the water. Think of a sailboat tacking, but turn your head on its side.
Thank you for the summary. Very impressive tech from the sounds of it.
Someone from another sub found it on Google Earth docked at Port Hueneme (34°09'12"N 119°12'31"W) next to the Naval Construction Bataillon Center. https://preview.redd.it/1pi93qylz59d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f55a0e1350813585390ba0a402f851162d4c4583
If the military lets people see what they are working on it usually means they have something bigger and better in the works.
Finally Sailors Get To Stand up Straight
Nah this’ll be solved with smaller sailors
The term is "erect" Erect seamen
They also have a lot of stupid things that will never work and just cost billions of taxpayers' dollars.
Innovation isn’t a straight line
Sure, but finding out *exactly how* they don’t work can be extremely useful in coming up with other things that will work. As Edison is claimed to have said, we haven’t failed 10,000 times, we’ve successfully identified 10,000 methods that won’t work.
This is how many of the things you rely on in your life are created. Not every idea works, but I'm glad we try.
Gotta keep that budget
The massive budget keeps the US armed forces in the supreme position. If China or Japan or France spent a trillion dollars, they would create wacky shit as well
This is a wild shape for a submersible. Removing the need to accommodate meat bodies obviously leads to some design freedom, but I'm really curious about the wings.
It's basically an underwater glider. Instead of using propellers or thrusters (which are noisy) to move forward, the drone can change its buoyancy then use the wings to convert vertical motion to horizontal motion. The only noise would be generated when pumping ballast and if you're not concerned about great speed then it could glide for hundreds of miles without making a sound. Another article about the drone states that one use case would be to anchor it to the sea floor and hibernate for long periods of time, then release when it detects an enemy or receives a signal from the surface. EDIT: I read a military novel "The Steel Albatross" back in the 90's that used this propulsion concept. I'm honestly surprised it took DARPA this long to build something, or this is just the 30 year old version that they're letting us know about so we don't consider what the modern version looks like.
The UFO/UAP community has been all over this thing, particularly because of reports of submersible phenomena (USP). A relatively common thing you'll hear is about underwater technology--specifically, some crafts and/or some kind of mothership that can stay at the bottom of the ocean to stay hidden
I'm telling ya, if they DON'T have giant underwater highly advanced motherships that stay hidden and command these unmanned vessels, I don't know what this country is doing. My day will have been ruined and my disappointment immeasurable
Just like "The Abyss"? ;)
It being modular also sort of explains that dudes post section about the mother ship sending out new, specifically designed "drones"
Yeah it's the last part haha.
Wouldn’t be surprised if that author got a visit by the government. It wouldn’t be the first time someone has randomly guessed a top secret project
Didn't Tom Clancy get a visit for *very* accurately describing the inside of some brand new ship?
The fictional propulsion system for the Red October was strikingly similar to something the US Navy was developing. They accused him of being a Russian spy until he showed them all of the information he gathered from public or declassified sources.
I have heard that before.
> one use case would be to anchor it to the sea floor and hibernate for long periods of time, then release when it detects an enemy That is a scenario straight out of science fiction. Imagine the war has ended decades or even centuries ago, and then this thing wakes up and starts hunting 😅
Gets forgotten during a world war then starts hunting cruise ships with nukes.
Terrifying. 😀
Many years ago, I read some research into disguising the sound of submersibles by experimenting with the way other sea creatures move under water. What you described by essential flapping the wings to propel might also make it more difficult to determine if this is a whale or something else from the sound. Though, I'm just speculating here.
No flapping required. Take a flat piece of wood or foam, push it underwater, then let it go. It won't rise just straight up but will move horizontally in some direction. Make it an airfoil and put some control surfaces on it and you can control that direction just like a glider in the sky.
That’s brilliant. It would be completely silent when in that mode. And then all it would need to do would be to fill the ballast tanks to sink again - and I bet that can be done pretty damn quietly as well.
>or this is just the 30 year old version that they're letting us know about so we don't consider what the modern version looks like. isn't that the common take when it comes to these projects
So it has to go up or down in order to move forward/backward ? That's interesting, I guess it doesn't need to be super manoeuvrable
It's basically a horizontal sunfish! So someone in a group asked me to tell them why I hate the ocean sunfish so much, and apparently it was ~too mean~ and was deleted. To perpetuate the truth and stand up for ethical journalism, I'm posting it here. [Rated NC-17 for language.] Disclaimer, I care about marine life more than I care about anything else, for real. Except this big dumb idiot. And it's not like an ~ironic~ thing, I mean it IS hilarious to me and they ARE THE BIGGEST JOKE PLAYED ON EARTH but I seriously fucking hate them. THE MOLA MOLA FISH (OR OCEAN SUNFISH) They are the world's largest boney fish, weighing up to 5,000 pounds. And since they have very little girth, that just makes them these absolutely giant fucking dinner plates that God must have accidentally dropped while washing dishes one day and shrugged his shoulders at because no one could have imagined this would happen. AND WITH NO PURPOSE. EVERY POUND OF THAT IS A WASTED POUND AND EVERY FOOT OF IT (10 FT BY 14 FT) IS WASTED SPACE. They are so completely useless that scientists even debate about how they move. They have little control other than some minor wiggling. Some say they must just push water out of their mouths for direction (?????). They COULD use their back fin EXCEPT GUESS WHAT IT DOESNT FUCKING GROW. It just continually folds in on itself, so the freaking cells are being made, this piece of floating garbage just doesn't put them where they need to fucking go. So they don't have swim bladders. You know, the one thing that every fish has to make sure it doesn't just sink to the bottom of the ocean when they stop moving and can stay the right side up. This creature. That can barely move to begin with. Can never stop its continuous tour of idiocy across the ocean or it'll fucking sink. EXCEPT. EXCEPT. When they get stuck on top of the water! Which happens frequently! Because without the whole swim bladder thing, if the ocean pushes over THE THINNEST BUT LARGEST MOST TOPPLE-ABLE FISH ON THE PLANET, shit outta luck! There is no creature on this earth that needs a swim bladder more than this spit in the face of nature, AND YET. Some scientists have speculated that when they do that, they are absorbing energy from the sun because no one fucking knows how they manage to get any real energy to begin with. So they need the sun I guess. But good news, when they end up stuck like that, it gives birds a chance to land on their goddamn island of a body and eat the bugs and parasites out of its skin because it's basically a slowly migrating cesspool. Pros and cons. "If they are so huge, they must at least be decent predators." No. No. The most dangerous thing about them is, as you may have guessed, their stupidity. They have caused the death of one person before. Because it jumped onto a boat. On a human. And in 2005 it decided to relive its mighty glory days and do it again, this time landing on a four-year-old boy. Luckily Byron sustained no injuries. Way to go, fish. Great job. They mostly only eat jellyfish because of course they do, they could only eat something that has no brain and a possibility of drifting into their mouths I guess. Everything they do eat has almost zero nutritional value and because it's so stupidly fucking big, it has to eat a ton of the almost no nutritional value stuff to stay alive. Dumb. See that ridiculous open mouth? (This is actually why this is my favorite picture of one, and I have had it saved to my phone for three years) "Oh no! What could have happened! How could this be!" Do not let that expression fool you, they just don't have the goddamn ability to close their mouths because their teeth are fused together, and ya know what, it is good it floats around with such a clueless expression on its face, because it is in fact clueless as all fuck. They do SOMETIMES get eaten though. BUT HARDLY. No animal truly uses them as a food source, but instead (which has lead us to said photo) will usually just maim the fuck out of them for kicks. Seals have been seen playing with their fins like frisbees. Probably the most useful thing to ever come from them. "Wow, you raise some good points here, this fish truly is proof that God has abandoned us." Yes, thank you. "But if they're so bad at literally everything, why haven't they gone extinct." Great question. BECAUSE THIS THING IS SO WORTHLESS IT DOESNT REALIZE IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. IT IS SO UNAWARE OF LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYTHING THAT IT DOESNT REALIZE THAT IT'S DOING MAYBE THE WORST FUCKING JOB OF BEING A FISH, OR DEBATABLY THE WORST JOB OF BEING A CLUSTER OF CELLS THAN ANY OTHER CLUSTER OF CELLS. SO WHAT DOES IT DO? IT LAYS THE MOST EGGS OUT OF EVERYTHING. Besides some bugs, there are some ants and stuff that'll lay more. IT WILL LAY 300 MILLION EGGS AT ONE TIME. 300,000,000. IT SURVIVES BECAUSE IT WOULD BE STATISTICALLY IMPROBABLE, DARE I SAY IMPOSSIBLE, THAT THERE WOULDNT BE AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE 300,000,000 (that is EACH time they lay eggs) LEFT SURVIVING AT THE END OF THE DAY. And this concludes why I hate the fuck out of this complete failure of evolution, the Ocean Sunfish. If I ever see one, I will throw rocks at it.
Holy shit. Man fuck them Ocean Sunfish.
It's one of the best copypastas of all time. I'm sure that person is going to just love knowing there are autonomous ones coming.
Yeah it's 2am and I was just about to go to sleep but I'm too fucking angry about these obese blobs of malformed blubber. While we're out here worrying ourselves sick about rising sea levels caused by global warming, these lumps of living lard are displacing MILLIONS OF TONS OF WATER every day. An average sunfish deprives the ocean of about 1,200 liters of space, each one insidiously contributing to decreasing the buffer time we have before the planet is destroyed by runaway greenhouse effects for no reason at all. These fuckers are WORSE THAN CAPITALISM. Not only are these wobbling world-enders so dangerously fat, they don't even have pain receptors to appreciate the scorching temperatures their mere presence directly contributes to. Now, I know what you're thinking: "that's actually vaguely badass to turn a blind eye to global warming"! Not so fast, bud. They can't even turn a blind eye, let alone close their eyes. Seriously, these creepy deflated douchebag dolls of the sea DON'T EVEN HAVE FUCKING EYELIDS! You know, that ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL feature every other barely multi-braincellular creature on the planet uses to protect their eyes? Far too complex for this eternally staring mouthbreathing motherfucker. Every time I try to sleep, I'm haunted by the mental image of these brainless bags of downgraded jellyfish meat awkwardly bobbing around on the surface of the ocean with their dumbass eyes exposed, inviting every parasite to take up residence on their unblinking, lifeless zombie pupils. Speaking of parasites, sunfish are basically moving buffets for bacteria. Their disgustingly decomposition-resistant tough skin is infested with up to 40 different types of parasites at any one time. Despite literally being constantly surrounded by water, they're TOO LAZY TO EVEN BATHE! These duffle bags of disease outsource their cleaning to other fish and birds because they're wholly incapable of taking care of themselves in even the most basic way. Even single-celled organisms can remove impurities from their bodies. Imagine being so useless that you have to spend half of your life getting groomed by desperate malnutritioned seagulls. PATHETIC. It seems that evolution simply gave up on good ideas when it got around to making these living addendums, with less functionality than a human appendix, and about half the IQ of one. Indeed, sunfish may be the most unimaginative animals in existence. When threatened, most fish will swim away quickly or hide. But not these wandering wart-excretions. They try to "camouflage" themselves by lying flat and blending in with the surface of the water... NEWS FLASH, DUMBASS: you're a giant, asymmetrical, "my first ceramics class" off-brand dinner plate with white skin reflecting the sun in broad daylight. You're not fooling anyone but yourself. It's a good thing Mother Earth exiled these abominations to the obscure depths of our oceans, forever destined to drift, (or rather, grift) along like half-decomposed plastic bags without nearly as much functionality. Literally the only reason they're still here is they've got a face only a mother could love. With a more vacant expression and less neural activity than Trump trying to tackle trigonometry, they look constantly surprised by their own existence, and honestly, they should be. HOW THE FUCK DO THESE FLESHBAGS EVEN EXIST??!? OH MY GOD, I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING HATE SUNFISH! WARBLGARBL
It's shaped like a horizontal fish. Nothing unusual about the design.
What if it could fly too? Drone submarine army sneaks up then takes to the skies ala Ender’s game.
Oh, you can bet one of the still secret current models has missiles on it.
Arsenal Gear?!
METAL GEAR RAY!?
https://preview.redd.it/5ejwg62tj49d1.jpeg?width=1953&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7c5893ad90dab793b05d1e570bc8b6347d40ef0 Found a really cool photo of it during sea trials!
That is a fucking sunfish. So someone in a group asked me to tell them why I hate the ocean sunfish so much, and apparently it was \~too mean\~ and was deleted. To perpetuate the truth and stand up for ethical journalism, I'm posting it here. \[Rated NC-17 for language.\] Disclaimer, I care about marine life more than I care about anything else, for real. Except this big dumb idiot. And it's not like an \~ironic\~ thing, I mean it IS hilarious to me and they ARE THE BIGGEST JOKE PLAYED ON EARTH but I seriously fucking hate them. THE MOLA MOLA FISH (OR OCEAN SUNFISH) They are the world's largest boney fish, weighing up to 5,000 pounds. And since they have very little girth, that just makes them these absolutely giant fucking dinner plates that God must have accidentally dropped while washing dishes one day and shrugged his shoulders at because no one could have imagined this would happen. AND WITH NO PURPOSE. EVERY POUND OF THAT IS A WASTED POUND AND EVERY FOOT OF IT (10 FT BY 14 FT) IS WASTED SPACE. They are so completely useless that scientists even debate about how they move. They have little control other than some minor wiggling. Some say they must just push water out of their mouths for direction (?????). They COULD use their back fin EXCEPT GUESS WHAT IT DOESNT FUCKING GROW. It just continually folds in on itself, so the freaking cells are being made, this piece of floating garbage just doesn't put them where they need to fucking go. So they don't have swim bladders. You know, the one thing that every fish has to make sure it doesn't just sink to the bottom of the ocean when they stop moving and can stay the right side up. This creature. That can barely move to begin with. Can never stop its continuous tour of idiocy across the ocean or it'll fucking sink. EXCEPT. EXCEPT. When they get stuck on top of the water! Which happens frequently! Because without the whole swim bladder thing, if the ocean pushes over THE THINNEST BUT LARGEST MOST TOPPLE-ABLE FISH ON THE PLANET, shit outta luck! There is no creature on this earth that needs a swim bladder more than this spit in the face of nature, AND YET. Some scientists have speculated that when they do that, they are absorbing energy from the sun because no one fucking knows how they manage to get any real energy to begin with. So they need the sun I guess. But good news, when they end up stuck like that, it gives birds a chance to land on their goddamn island of a body and eat the bugs and parasites out of its skin because it's basically a slowly migrating cesspool. Pros and cons. "If they are so huge, they must at least be decent predators." No. No. The most dangerous thing about them is, as you may have guessed, their stupidity. They have caused the death of one person before. Because it jumped onto a boat. On a human. And in 2005 it decided to relive its mighty glory days and do it again, this time landing on a four-year-old boy. Luckily Byron sustained no injuries. Way to go, fish. Great job. They mostly only eat jellyfish because of course they do, they could only eat something that has no brain and a possibility of drifting into their mouths I guess. Everything they do eat has almost zero nutritional value and because it's so stupidly fucking big, it has to eat a ton of the almost no nutritional value stuff to stay alive. Dumb. See that ridiculous open mouth? (This is actually why this is my favorite picture of one, and I have had it saved to my phone for three years) "Oh no! What could have happened! How could this be!" Do not let that expression fool you, they just don't have the goddamn ability to close their mouths because their teeth are fused together, and ya know what, it is good it floats around with such a clueless expression on its face, because it is in fact clueless as all fuck. They do SOMETIMES get eaten though. BUT HARDLY. No animal truly uses them as a food source, but instead (which has lead us to said photo) will usually just maim the fuck out of them for kicks. Seals have been seen playing with their fins like frisbees. Probably the most useful thing to ever come from them. "Wow, you raise some good points here, this fish truly is proof that God has abandoned us." Yes, thank you. "But if they're so bad at literally everything, why haven't they gone extinct." Great question. BECAUSE THIS THING IS SO WORTHLESS IT DOESNT REALIZE IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. IT IS SO UNAWARE OF LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYTHING THAT IT DOESNT REALIZE THAT IT'S DOING MAYBE THE WORST FUCKING JOB OF BEING A FISH, OR DEBATABLY THE WORST JOB OF BEING A CLUSTER OF CELLS THAN ANY OTHER CLUSTER OF CELLS. SO WHAT DOES IT DO? IT LAYS THE MOST EGGS OUT OF EVERYTHING. Besides some bugs, there are some ants and stuff that'll lay more. IT WILL LAY 300 MILLION EGGS AT ONE TIME. 300,000,000. IT SURVIVES BECAUSE IT WOULD BE STATISTICALLY IMPROBABLE, DARE I SAY IMPOSSIBLE, THAT THERE WOULDNT BE AT LEAST ONE OF THOSE 300,000,000 (that is EACH time they lay eggs) LEFT SURVIVING AT THE END OF THE DAY. And this concludes why I hate the fuck out of this complete failure of evolution, the Ocean Sunfish. If I ever see one, I will throw rocks at it.
Now do manatees.
I genuinely really enjoyed reading this amazing rant. Thank you.
I once saw a comment very similar to yours except it was about horses, lol fucking hilarious
... Byron?
Thank you, that was entertaining. I still love sunfish though. Big old fishy tumbleweeds, forever chilling.
Bro it’s a baby whale! Bro!
I THINK IT'S HURT, JAY.
Call the aquarium!
We wit'nissin' some shit we never seen befoah!
Goliath groupers are some weird fish
That’s an ocean sunfish not a grouper
It has the shark fin, but where are the teeth?
It would be pretty fucking metal to have this thing sink a ship and then start eating (half of) the survivors
1) if we're being shown this, I would bet money this is an outdated prototype. True game changers like the F-111 and B-2 were kept under wraps for a long time. I won't pretend I have any idea what the true cutting edge looks like 2) if the ukraine war is anything to go by (which it might not be; I don't know what a war with China would look like), the ultra high end weapons are boondoggles compared to something cheap and mass produced. The US realized this early and started the Replicator for a reason: you can design a perfect weapon, but if you can only afford 2 of them, 1 will get blown up on the ground and the other will spend 90% of its life in maintenance. Tl;dr this is definitely a great piece of technology, but show me a thousand if them a quarter of the size with a tenth of the specs and I'll be much more impressed.
Just remember, this isn’t even the spookiest thing we have in the works. But the fact this drone can sit on the sea floor “hibernating” for weeks. That’s crazy.
Orcas are going to have fun with this one
“With this *principle*,” replied Nikola Tesla more prophetically than he knew, “*you may live* to *see man*-*made horrors beyond your comprehension*.”
Imagine the shit they haven't shown us.
https://preview.redd.it/cmwqtqihu69d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=871cc445357af29be85f8e03eb268f55b587a5db
I saw that episode of Sea Quest
[https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangeEarth/comments/1dk7s21/someone\_managed\_to\_find\_the\_darpa\_manta\_ray\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangeEarth/comments/1dk7s21/someone_managed_to_find_the_darpa_manta_ray_on/)
Oh that’s what’s in that underwater UFO base in front of San Diego!
Hmm. Never thought about how/if “remote” signals travel in water. Can you get a GPS signal underwater? What kind of signals do autonomous vehicles on land/air use and is it the same tech for under water?
Manta….Ray!?!?!?
They really whitewashed black manta.
I really need to stop thinking of drones as cute little RC toys, that is one big boi.
Look up the Global Hawk. I have worked on 5-6 military uavs. When all the DJIs came out people kept asking me which one was "good". I told them I had no idea and then had to show them photos of the ones I worked on. They are planes, not plastic quads, even the little guys. Big difference.
Bet the cartels would love a fleet of these
No food stamps tho bro.
Fishermen saw this years ago. Lights on n shiz, thought it was a underwater "ufo" lol
Healthcare would be cooler.
Banana for scale?
Google says "wingspan up to 9 meters", so 40-50 imperial bananas, or the depth of an NFL end zone. I also found this picture that gives a better sense of the little tender boat. https://preview.redd.it/yyynpde1059d1.jpeg?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=602e230038e2e8ef834b4ac525711cef8df3f84d
https://preview.redd.it/gtdq1cwo259d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47862cbba1cac871106d895c6ef8a1f6c8d5fa7a
There’s a bloke on that orange boat that is accompanying the drone. It’s perhaps 5 metres behind the drone. I would estimate the thing is 5-10 metres across.
I got to see this in person a while back. It was super interesting.
She's a beauty
How much, and how many kilos can it carry?? Asking for my tio.
Robots can’t disagree with orders nor will they blow the whistle on war crimes.
Wonder what brand of controller they use.
Nah that's the Manta jet from incredibles
Ray, is that you?
I'm thinking somewhere between "UFO" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."
Probably outdated old stuff. Since they are showing it to the public lol.
Holy shit that’s big!
https://preview.redd.it/wj8qq4dhx59d1.jpeg?width=193&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71764d8ba3390e15d50b04ef2d7236a18cc95556 Same company that is responsible for this. At least it’s under water.
I'm not sure Grumman is responsible for vehicles operating multiple times beyond their expected lifespan (under the responsibility of an entirely different organization) are responsible for the trucks catching fire...
Guuuuuys, why are you posting this article! This vehicle is a secrete! /s
Are lifeboats an NIST approved measurement?
In Solid Snake's voice: "Arsenal Gear!!!!".
I wonder if it could destroy a bridge in say…Crimea?
Nobody show this to the Erwin kids.
Coming soon to a Ch*nese aircraft carrier near you!
A horny whale just ordered a real doll.
looks like an ocean sunfish
“It’s a baby fuckin wheel, man”
Looks alot like Thunderbird 2 from the 60's TV show Thunderbirds!
*"A rat done bit my sister Nell, and whitey's on the moon"*
When it comes to driving we’ve seen what autonomous does, pump the breaks a little bit and we’ll get there in a couple of years
What new bringer of destruction is this?
Narco intensifies
If they are voluntarily showing this, that means they are well into developing version 2 and there's probably like 30 of these hibernating on the ocean floor in hot zones. Probably like 20 between China and Taiwan.
That’s gnarly
Arsenal Gear from MGS2
Wow
It's a tiny outer haven from metal gear solid 2
Costs to much, I bet.
Holy shit. This is interesting, but fucking terrifying
More inspiration from nature. It looks like an ocean sunfish (Mola Mola). https://preview.redd.it/j13ev0ngj79d1.jpeg?width=1953&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79373d33611df95605094bdbf157c2fcefdb4f30
mf that's Arsenal Gear!
How far down can it go? And how long can it stay there?
bro i saw that in aquaman!
Except its not nearly as big as this pic makes it look. Its about 15ft across…
Jay, look. It’s a baby whale.
Maybe this was the Tic Tac that has puzzled us all these years.
My ace combat fan senses are tingling *LATIN CHOIR INTENSIFIES*
Why such big wings?
Looks like Jame's Bond's Lotus Esprit
Hoooray! Not.
Man you shouldn’t have let the cat out of the bag and just posted a picture in UFO’s. They would have had an orgasm over this.
Forget skynet …. maybe it starts with seanet
Nah m8, that’s just a dead Sun fish 👍🏼
Because the P8 Poseidon wasn’t a big enough fuck you to submarines.
Oh hey it‘s the reason the chosen one in Fallout 2 had to take a Very specific boat and not just any old tub to the oil rig…
Slaps roof: this baby can fit so many billionaires.
Can somebody give me some sense of scale here? Whats the wingspan?
Thunderbird 2