Saturday - February 25, 2006

Skunk Works Update

See the funny-looking airplane below? It’s an unmanned technological masterpiece. It can be launched from an Ohio-class submarine, perform its mission, whether reconnaissance or bombing, and return to the sub. All while the sub remains underwater, out of sight. Of course, this article comes from Popular Science’s current February issue where they say the Skunk Works is “testing” the concept. What that means is that this bird was first tested in 1979, hundreds were built during the 1980’s using secret discretionary funds and have been deployed to the fleet since 1986. The Skunk Works is already working on the Third Generation of this critter. Trust me.

Picture this: Iran announces it now has nuclear bombs and plans to use them on Israel. The USS Tennessee (SSBN-734) leaves its station in the Indian Ocean and proceeds to the Straits Of Hormuz. Lying offshore from Iran under 500 feet of water, the Captain and crew silently wait until darkness descends on the world above. Then at 0200 hrs. the Cormorant is launched quietly from the missile tube where it has waited. Loaded with tactical nuclear weapons, the bird of prey stealthily cruises at treetop level below radar for several hundred miles and takes out four key nuclear facilities and major bases. Then silently the now-empty bird returns to the sea where it descends to hook up and be retrieved by the sub, which silently sails away into the night. The next morning when the press comes screaming at the President, inquiring if the US had anything to do with the nuclear wasteland Iran has become, Dubya simply responds, “No. We had nothing to do with it. Them Eye-ranians must of had one them nucular accidents or something.”

No, really. It could happen. If only Dubya can keep a straight face ...

The Navy’s Swimming Spy Plane
It floats, it flies, it eliminates enemy targets—meet the water-launched unmanned enforcer

(POPULAR SCIENCE)

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, famed for the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes that flew higher than anything else in the world in their day, is trying for a different altitude record: an airplane that starts and ends its mission 150 feet underwater. The Cormorant, a stealthy, jet-powered, autonomous aircraft that could be outfitted with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment, is designed to launch out of the Trident missile tubes in some of the U.S. Navy’s gigantic Cold War–era Ohio-class submarines.

These formerly nuke-toting subs have become less useful in a military climate evolved to favor surgical strikes over nuclear stalemates, but the Cormorant could use their now-vacant tubes to provide another unmanned option for spying on or destroying targets near the coast.

This is no easy task. The tubes are as long as a semi trailer but about seven feet wide—not exactly airplane-shaped. The Cormorant has to be strong enough to withstand the pressure 150 feet underwater—enough to cave in hatches on a normal aircraft—but light enough to fly. Another challenge: Subs survive by stealth, and an airplane flying back to the boat could give its position away.

The Skunk Works’s answer is a four-ton airplane with gull wings that hinge around its body to fit inside the missile tube. The craft is made of titanium to resist corrosion, and any empty spaces are filled with plastic foam to resist crushing. The rest of the body is pressurized with inert gas. Inflatable seals keep the weapon-bay doors, engine inlet and exhaust covers watertight.

The Cormorant does not shoot out of its tube like a missile. Instead an arm-like docking “saddle” guides the craft out, sending it floating to the surface while the sub slips away. As the drone pops out of the water, the rocket boosters fire and the Cormorant takes off. After completing its mission, the plane flies to the rendezvous coordinates it receives from the sub and lands in the sea. The sub then launches a robotic underwater vehicle to fetch the floating drone.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is funding tests of some of the Cormorant’s unique systems, including a splashdown model and an underwater-recovery vehicle. The tests should be completed by September, after which Darpa will decide whether it will fund a flying prototype.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/25/2006 at 03:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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