Periscopes... Who Needs 'Em?
For those who haven't seen it yet, here's an article on the latest in non-penetrating submarine optics. Excerpt:
"But submarines could soon get new optics systems that provide far greater stealth and security by allowing them to look around from the depths and without a mast due to two innovative products being developed by a small California company. The Virtual Periscope, slated for sea trials aboard the USS Chicago this summer, would turn the surface of the ocean itself into a lens. The Low-Cost Expendable Sensor (LCES) is a small tethered camera that would bob to the surface and send images back..."
I'm probably old-fashioned, but I still like the idea of actually looking at what I'm looking at, rather than trusting in the electronics to process it all...
Lubber's Line wrote more about this article over at our new group sub-blog, Ultraquiet No More.
Going deep...
posted by Bubblehead at 8:26 AM
3 Comments:
Already happening. Periscopes are a thing of the past. The Virginia has a non penatrating optics mast in place of a periscope. This system was first used on the DSRV's only then, it was simply referred to as the pan camera.
From what I hear, the lack of a periscope on the Virginia enabled the designers to place the control room on the middle level enabling a larget control room.
6/04/2005 12:06 PM
Power redundancy for nonpenetrating optics has got to be pretty crucial. Surfacing could get hairy in certain emergencies. Now, there are no "windows" left.
6/05/2005 12:56 AM
Sorry, but long before the first "Black boat" ever experimented with the optics mast, the DSRV's had two pan camera's operating in the same manner as periscopes. The DSRV's have been doing this since 1972. In the 90's, the 90 deg conventional tv cameras were replaces by what is the same design as what the Virginia class now uses. So with the experince on the DSRV's and NR-1, the optics mast is not as new a concept as one would believe.
6/05/2005 1:47 PM
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