Tag Archives: mini sub

Showing off the Proteus mini-sub packing heat

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Huntington Ingalls Industries announced a couple weeks ago that Proteus, their 26-foot-long dual-mode undersea vehicle (UUV), successfully completed autonomous contested battlespace missions during the 2017 Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City Division.

And released this sweet image:

Proteus, a dual-mode undersea vehicle developed by HII_s Technical Solutions division

The Panama City News Herald has more images, including shots of the interior and control panel and underway.

As noted by the PCB NH:

Since entering the testing phase in 2012, Proteus has logged 2,000 dive hours locally and abroad, including at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD), the scientific lab for Naval Support Activity Panama City.

It can go underwater with or without a human crew, though it isn’t yet being used in field missions. At ANTX, hosted by NSWC PCD, its designers showed off another capability, having Proteus carry other vehicles during testing.

Mini sub off Ft. Lauderdale?

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Beachcombers in the Highland Beach area came across a 20-foot long submersible like object stuck just offshore.  A Texas man saw it on Oct. 26 and, thinking it was a buoy, swam out 150 yards and photographed it, seeing a 6cyl engine and battery inside and a prop at the tail. Two hatches were open but no one was inside. Then he alerted police and the USCG who investigated it but left it in place.

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Putting a light on the object to mark it, a few days later it washed ashore, where others photographed it before it was moved by a tractor off the beach where DHS is picking up the investigation.

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Narco boat? Part of a migrant vessel? North Korean supersub? Who knows.

From the Sun Sentinel

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Eric Pare said the vessel could have been used to smuggle drugs into the country, though Pare said that is very unlikely.

“We have had these cases in the past,” Pare said, referring to drug submarines. “But they’re usually in the deep Caribbean, off the coast of South America or the eastern Pacific on the Mexican side; [or] the Pacific coast. It’s extremely rare to see something like this this far north.”

Baltic Midget Submarines ahoy!

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This thing is downright cute

This thing is downright cute

So there is this privately owned U-boat in Germany built as part of the Euronaut project and honestly its kinda bad-ass. Its 53-feet long, 32-tons in displacement, capable of diving to 250m (500m crush depth), able to submerge for a week. Powered by a 190hp Diesel on the surface that enables it to make a blistering 8-knots for 250nm or as long as its 250 gallons of diesel let her. Submerged, 107 batteries power a 55hp electric motor allowing her to make 5 knots under the waves.

Check out the plans for this. Somewhere in North Korea a naval engineer is salivating...

Check out the plans for this. Somewhere in North Korea a naval engineer is salivating…

She comes complete with a wet/dry chamber to lock out divers which is always handy in a tiny sub.  She was built by German engineer Carsten Standfuss over a 12 year period. She can carry 3-8 crew/divers.

So far they have used it to find the wrecks of the HMS Seahorse, HMS E-16, SMS Wacht, S.M. UC-71, an unidentified small cargo ship, a RAF Lancaster bomber, and an East German Air Force Mig-17.

Blowing!

Blowing!

 

There seems to be some sort of civilian midget submarine arms race in the Baltic. Besides the Euronaut boat, in nearby Denmark the 59-foot ‘Art project” UC-3 Nautilus, built for $200,000 and manned by former Royal Danish Navy submariners, has been called (tongue in cheek) the world’s smallest ballistic missile submarine for her recent work in launching offshore sub-orbital rockets.

Yes, thats a rocket, the 36-foot long HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe on a platform (called Sputnik) pushed by the Danish art-project submarine UC3

Yes, that’s a rocket, the 36-foot long HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe on a platform (called Sputnik) pushed by the Danish art-project submarine UC3

The Danish UC-3 Nautilus.

The Danish UC-3 Nautilus.

Either of these craft are likely still far and away better than those operated by the DPRK and Iran.