Reliable communication with submerged submarines remains difficult even for advanced navies, and richer coordination among submarines and underwater vehicles raises still harder engineering problems. Hardwired links introduce their own risks because cables can tangle as currents move vehicles around real seabed terrain. Autonomous underwater systems already have useful mine-countermeasure roles, although that experience does not make a networked submarine wolfpack mature. Its deployment timetable depends on solving those engineering problems.
Chapter · 2:15-5:01
Undersea drone concepts meet communications and terrain
A proposed drone-carrier submarine wolfpack becomes a case study in underwater communications, coordination, cables, currents, and seabed terrain.