Undersea Text Messaging for Nuclear Subs

SEAWOLF CLASS NUCLEAR SUBMARINE, U.S. NAVY

From The Danger Room:

The Navy has long sought a solution to a major technical dilemma: How to stay in touch with submarines while they run deep beneath the surface.

Stew Magnuson of National Defense has a great piece on one possible solution: "Deep Siren," a new system that would allow a submarine to send a text without surfacing. Intriguingly, the system works by sending a communications buoy through the sub's trash chute. Magnuson writes:

When the submarine is far enough away, the buoy ascends to the surface, deploys floatation devices and sends a message to a command and control center through an Iridium satellite.

Once a link between the buoy and the command center is established, it then lowers an antenna deep into the water. A transducer takes messages, translates them into acoustic energy and sends a pulse out through the water in an area greater than 50 nautical square miles.

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