Submarines

I don't really know where to ask this question, but figured that I might get a reasonable answer here. There has been quite a bit said lately about Columbian druggies building semi and completely submersible vessels to elude detection, bringing in large amounts of drugs, and potentially terrorist weapons. Very hard to detect from boats and aircraft. Our Navy subs have extremely effective sonar, and real good weapons for dealing with other subs. Why are they not being used? Or do we just not know about it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_anomaly_detector

If they can find and track a 100 million dollar Russian sub, I am thinking something some coked out drug lord can come up with is not much of an issue.

I suspect because they are mostly made from fiberglass, composites, etc. and aren't that large that they are harder to detect than the Navy, Coast Guard and others are willing to admit (in public).

I could be wrong of course.

I know that there are ongoing efforts to attempt to reduce the building of these in addition to trying to find them once they are under way.

http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2061931_2260133,00.html

Could be that these "coked out drug lords" have a ton of $$, at their disposal, and they've hired very smart folks to make some of these vessels.

Never underestimate the enemy--- they have governments in their pockets, why not scientists as well?

In other news.......Poppy production is at an all time high in Afghanistan.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/13/21425925-afghanistan-opium-production-hits-record-despite-billions-spent-to-combat-trade

Rumor is that that Hamid Karzai's brother is a king-pin.

These modern drug lords are sophisticated, and extremely well funded. They throw influence and $$ around the world. I wouldn't put anything past them.

Navy doesn't do a lot of drug ops, coasties don't have submarines, and the old p-plane flyovers would be looking for much bigger subs.

That's not even bringing up the funding issue.

I've thought about building my own lake sized submarine for years. All that time spent on the big black ones should have taught me something.

I would expect most operations to prevent incoming drugs are done by the Coast Guard. Soooo there aren't very many of them...

The oceans are mighty big.....

OK, I see the issue. Based on the article linked above, these sub are going from Columbia to Mexico, NOT to the US.

I would be a bit concerned (as I am sure the Military would be) if the Navy was unable to detect shallow running vessels off of the US coastline.

In reply to aircooled:

The last one pictured is stopped by the USCG, I believe. If this is the case, some are used going to the US as well.

Wouldn't this be considered a "Clear and present danger to US security"? And a really nifty "training exercise" for the Navy boys!

I don't know what the rules are but... it's a boat. If I had a sub I would think it would be the same as if I had a sailboat.

Now that I'm thinking about it - I want a submarine.

cwh wrote: Wouldn't this be considered a "Clear and present danger to US security"? And a really nifty "training exercise" for the Navy boys!

You worry too much

I read Tom Clancy too much.

Electric boats are very hard to detect when running at low speeds.

That said, friend of mine was in the USCG during the end of the cold war. He tells the story of the time they were out of Kodiak. The Cutter he was on picked up what they thought was a soviet submarine so as they worked on it, they slowly moved themselves ahead of it.

Running on the diesels, they sounded no different than the fishingboats in the area, so the sub paid it no mind. Once they had it identified, The captain ordered the turbines spooled up. Soon as they switched over from Diesels to Turbines, they started hitting it with active sonar.

They chased it for several days back to international waters

I could not imagine the terror that went through the minds of that crew, to being quietly running along thinking you have a fishingboat in the area, to getting pounded by active sonar by what is obviously a fast and manueverable naval vessel.

Looks like the drug subs are powered by commercial diesels, 350hp or so. Those are not very quiet.

In reply to cwh:

But sound no different than fishing trawlers.....

These subs are fascinating. Imagine laying up hull sections in the jungle.

I have done a good bit of fiberglass work. Race car bodies. It isn't rocket science. And, they have access to very talented fabricators. $$$$ no problem.

I'll just leave this here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABc8ciT5QLs

More evidence that we've lost the "war on drugs"

cwh wrote: Looks like the drug subs are powered by commercial diesels, 350hp or so. Those are not very quiet.

diesels don't run very well under water. need electrics for that.

As I understand it, the idea behind these is even if they are detected, they can always sink it and the crew play dumb when picked up.

M2Pilot wrote: More evidence that we've lost the "war on drugs"

That war was lost the second it started. Unless you had money in synthetic fibers or the prison industry, then you won big.

iceracer wrote: diesels don't run very well under water. need electrics for that.

I am pretty sure none of these drug subs actually submerge. They just run with most of the boat under the water or equal to the surface. Submerging would greatly increase the complexity of building one.