Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Sub communications Message-ID: <15455@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 11 Apr 90 03:17:04 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 26 Approved: military@att.att.com From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: >Why would it be hard to communicate with a submerged submarine? You could >run a buoy to the surface on a fiber optic cable, and a transceiver could >communicate with a satellite... Many such things can be done if the sub is willing to come fairly near the surface; the point is that sub drivers, for good reasons, do not like doing that routinely. They especially do not like exposing *anything* on the surface itself, because radars designed for detecting sub periscopes can spot antenna buoys very quickly. In any case, schemes like this are useless for the PAL application: maintaining communication with an *uncooperative* submarine. >... it's hard to believe that SOME >kind of technology for communicating with submerged submarines doesn't exist. Communicating through hundreds of meters of water from thousands of miles away is just plain *hard*. The USN would love to have better methods of doing it. Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu