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Subject: Fantasy I know but...Sub-based UAV carrier?
HeavyD    4/28/2013 5:39:36 PM
Let's face it - a carrier battle group can't sneak up on anybody, but an Ohio can pop up and say hello at any place, any time. With UAV capabilities rapidly expanding how fun would it be to have a submersible UAV carrier? The UAVs would be launched vertically and would 'splash down' via parachute and then recovered, possibly with the sub still submerged. small, high endurance craft with Viper strike precision munitions can make a mess of C3i installations and cars full of bad guys. SDB glide bombs can do a whole lot more. THink mini-CAS for special ops.
 
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Reactive       4/28/2013 6:22:57 PM
What you are talking about is less of a UAV and more of a bus for submunitions - basically just a more lift-efficient cruise missile concept that is capable of carrying several light-weapons - the line between a UAV and cruise missile is blurry especially since the latter has a degree of AI built in in terms of terrain recognition, flight-path and target acquisition. 
 
So yes, a cruise missile that offers perhaps an hour or two of persistence and several submunitions is very plausible - a recoverable craft less so imv. It would rely largely on offboard targeting data and the submunitions (which would resemble SDB or brimstone) would need to be be fire-and-forget with capable sensors - the problem you have if you want a high-endurance craft with its own significant sensory capability is not just cost but also the fact it would likely be incompatible with existing launch tubes - especially for BWB designs.
 
 
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Maratabc       4/28/2013 9:58:15 PM
It's been done.
Let's face it - a carrier battle group can't sneak up on anybody, but an Ohio can pop up and say hello at any place, any time.

With UAV capabilities rapidly expanding how fun would it be to have a submersible UAV carrier?

The UAVs would be launched vertically and would 'splash down' via parachute and then recovered, possibly with the sub still submerged.

small, high endurance craft with Viper strike precision munitions can make a mess of C3i installations and cars full of bad guys. SDB glide bombs can do a whole lot more.

THink mini-CAS for special ops.



 
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WarNerd       4/29/2013 2:14:19 AM
Let's face it - a carrier battle group can't sneak up on anybody, but an Ohio can pop up and say hello at any place, any time. With UAV capabilities rapidly expanding how fun would it be to have a submersible UAV carrier? The UAVs would be launched vertically and would 'splash down' via parachute and then recovered, possibly with the sub still submerged.
small, high endurance craft with Viper strike precision munitions can make a mess of C3i installations and cars full of bad guys. SDB glide bombs can do a whole lot more.
THink mini-CAS for special ops.
Launch, no problem.
 
Recover, refurbish, rearm, and reload aboard a submerged submarine? Not practical.
 
Start with the problem of preventing cold salt water from being ingested into your hot engine during landing and recovery. Corrosion to the max. Plus it is probably no longer water proof to any significant depth (that was supplied by the launch capsule), so the salt intrusion is pretty much universal. Better start with a full teardown and testing.
 
Then you need to pack all the equipment and spares to make this happen. The launch capsules alone will each take up as much space as a complete assembly. Eats up a lot of space and displaces missiles.
 
Reloading them into the vertical launchers is probably not practical without a radical redesign of the submarine.
 
KISS principle -- Just load a bunch of MIRVed cruise missiles and disposable reconnaissance UAVs in the vertical launchers and be done with it.
 
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