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[flagged] U.S. Navy Submarine First in World Fitted with Silent Caterpillar Drive (navalnews.com)
27 points by wood_spirit on April 1, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 19 comments


> Sonar operators searching for the USS Montana will likely hear noises which are indistinguishable from natural phenomenon, such as seismic activity.

To me it sounded more like whales humping.


Came here for this.


The Plasma Channel on YouTube built a small one of these drives: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ulk4hw7pUZY. The thrust to power ratio is not fantastic, but I just love the idea of machines with no moving parts.


This particular submarine may offer some reprieve from the april fool's joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotland-class_submarine

Which innovately uses the very classic stirling engine, an engine which operates on the sole basis of heat differences, no internal combustion. As I understand it these can be more silent than nucular submarines, which require pumps and such to avoid nucular meltdown, but I am no expert on the intricacies of submarine detection


This is an april fool‘s joke, isn‘t it? This website is the only source for this news that I could find and the ship was also commissioned only two years ago.


I had the same thought. Also, it seems wildly improbable that a real news story about this tech would lack even a passing mention of The Hunt For Red October, yet here there is none.


Military was holding the info for a while but then decided they wanted it released so they called up a reporter they knew. Probably as a warning to a certain frenemy.


I suspect this article is a joke, but that would actually be a smart strategy.

Required to release some info you'd rather not release? Release it on April 1st, phrased as absurdly as possible.


April Fools!

The Montana is moving to Hawaii (citing multiple sources):

https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2024/mar/08/uss-montana-crew...

https://ussmontanacommittee.us/


I saw this movie. It's called "HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER "


Give away was sea trials on a river in Maine!!!

Former Nuclear Submarine Officer


need a person with a Scottish accent to take command of it.


The hard part about playing chicken is...


And the Chinese steal it in 5,4,3,2..


Piracy is a serious issue, but I'm sure the FBI warning at the start of the movie will scare them straight.


The Chinese try to steal it, fail, then just build the damn thing anyway.


I hope no one falls for this (check the date). Straight out of Hunt for Red October! : P


> Either way, Montana will remain unseen.

Laying it on pretty thick.


The funny thing is they also got a page put up on the DARPA site.

Magnetohydrodynamic drive indeed.




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