![]() What Amick envisions for mobile drone arrays is “deployable, disposable drones which can venture away from the submarine. He believes three significant changes are coming to sonar in the next 20 years: “Better materials, mobile drone arrays, and artificial intelligent operators.” For materials, “thousands of synthetic acoustic sensors will create an acoustic advantage, unlike anything we have seen before.” Aaron Amick who runs the Sub Brief channel told me that sonar is undergoing a dramatic evolution at the moment. These technologies will also change how a submarine ‘sees’ in the dark of the ocean. And much of the AI, navigation and communications may leverage quantum computing. Command centers may look more like Star Trek with more space and physically slimmer equipment. They will also benefit from Virtual Reality or holographic displays of the 3D battlespace in which they are operating. This is bad enough on a surface vessel, all but impossible on a stealthy, submerged submarine.” But improvements in undersea communications could make it possible. Hall notes, “crew don't like being away from the internet and social media, it is a societal need. Those who are left will live in relative comfort, and have easy access to the things we take for granted ashore, like social media. Yet advances in automation and artificial intelligence will greatly reduce the crews. ![]() None of the experts I discussed this with think that it will go that far. With the advent of autonomous underwater vehicles it is easy to suggest that future submarines will be completely uncrewed. There are a few basics which are not likely to change, however. Think of it like an aircraft carrier that has to keep some aircraft on deck at all times, only having enough internal space for maintenance.” Pawling believes that “by 2040 external carriage of XLUUVs would be likely. But these will need their own infrastructure. Think of them as small uncrewed submarines with their own independent warfighting capabilities. Really large drones, termed XLUUVs (extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles), may also be carried. ![]() Dr Rachel Pawling, who teaches naval architecture at University College London, suggests, “VLS is always going to hang around for those large air flight weapons where you want to launch several in quick order and don't care about reloads.” This would include larger hypersonic weapons such as Boost Glide missiles. Torpedo rooms are more versatile and can be used to launch weapons or drones at higher speeds. There are mutterings of a move is away from vertical launch systems (VLS).
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