More on Underwater Gliders

ianjk writes "Abcnews.com is reporting on two underwater gliders developed by the University of Washington and Webb Research. Both use very little energy and have quite long ranges (thousands of kilometers). Of course, the US Navy is showing quite an interest in the project." We mentioned these earlier.

Comments

This will ease the Greenies pressure on the Navy

[typical geek]

One of the biggest use for these will be as weapons, count on it. And this will get the Greenies off the Navies back (at least until they find some other windmill to tilt at, like deaf whales or something).

There have been a variety of Navy programs that used trained sea mammals to protect Naval bases, for instance the trained dolphins trained to bump into a VC frogman in Kham Rhan bay, but they never told the dolphins that the bumping hat was an activated mine. Boom!, one less flipper, and one less Charlie.

There are also reports of using sea lions, seals other cetaceans to watch for submersibles and boats, and hit them, forcing a detonation. For instance, Day of the Dolphin is a thinly veiled documentary on teh CIA's attempt to train dolphins to blow up Castro's yacht.

So, with these, everyone will win. The Greenies cute little dolphins don't have to kill, and the US Navy can continue to enforce the Pax Americana, and the rest of the world (except for evildoers) can go about their business, criticizing war mongering Americans, yet profiting from the most peaceful age the world has known since the Roman Empire. We business savvy sorts call that a win-win situation.

Re:US Navy drones and DSV's

[timepilot]

I worked with a group of people at Rutgers University who used Webb gliders and other AUVs. The gliders were used very successfully in a littoral environment, often to provide dense data streams which were in turn used to initialize ocean models.

The models, which were given a very accurate representation of ocean and atmospheric conditions with this data, were used to produce forecasts of ocean conditions which could have been very useful in a littoral warfare environment.

Check out http://marine.rutgers.edu/mrs/LEO/LEO15.html

Re:Ridiculous - Look at history!!

[mustangdavis]

It is a well documented fact the the countries with a dominant Navy have always been the pwoer house of the world.

There is no way to fly, reload and refuel our (the U.S.) military planes and use them effectively in a war without air craft carriers .... which is why we keep a dominant Navy. They also make it possible to place embargos into effect!

As far as history ... why do you think Great Britian was the power house it was back in the day? G.B. is just a small islnad nation, but yet they were the dominant force on this planet for over a century. Why? Their NAVY!!!

Keep in mind that there is no way for any Asian or European countries to invade the Americas (if they wanted to) without the use of a Navy. A solid Navy is the key to winning ANY war (without using nukes).

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to re-live it!