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Continental Defence Corvette


French navy drone efforts.

Ukraine turned to drones because they had no ships.
The Brits are turning to drones because they don't have enough ships.
In neither case could new ships be brought on line quick enough,

Drones allowed the Ukrainians to reach out from their shores.
British drones are intended to let the available ships reach farther and cover more sea area.
They are not a replacement for ships.
They are a complement to the existing capabilities.

They can be deployed from the existing fleet. They can be controlled from the existing fleet and directly from shore or circling aircraft.

And these are a key part of the new ecosystem. They can sail for months with no attendance, transmit what they sea and hear above, on and under the water...... and critcally, they enable communications between aircraft, satellites and ships with submerged submarines and drones.



Do wave gliders allow communications between aircraft and submarines +8

Yes, Wave Gliders act as a critical,, long-endurance communication gateway between submerged submarines (or underwater drones) and aircraft, satellites, or shore stations. They function as a "bridge" over the air-water interface to overcome the limitations of acoustic (underwater) and radio (air) communication systems

Key Aspects of Wave Glider Communication:

How it Works: Wave Gliders use a two-part system—a surface float and a submerged glider connected by a tether—to maintain communication via acoustic modems with submarines, then transmit that data via radio/satellite to aircraft or command centers.

Covert Operations: They enable submarines to receive information and send data without surfacing, which reduces the risk of detection.

Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW): Wave Gliders are used to form mobile, distributed sensor networks to detect, track, and provide communication for manned and unmanned submarines.

Real-time Data Transfer: They offer a faster and cheaper method for transferring data from the seafloor or deep-sea vehicles to personnel in the air or on land.

While researchers at MIT have developed a, separate, specialized system called "translational acoustic-RF communication" (TARF) that allows aircraft to directly detect, ,underwater acoustic signals via surface ripples, the Wave Glider is the established industry-standard autonomous surface vehicle platform that actively acts as a, relay node between undersea and air assets.
 
These large long range drones are 'all the rage' in various news articles, but in truth, they are very untested.

Anyone who has been to sea knows equipment breaks down, either due to pounding/rolling of the sea, or due to the salty air, or simply due to manufacturing of some random part that was not up to spec, or due to some salt water leak impacting equipment. With warships being manned with maintainers, the equipment can be diagnosed and repaired. But for a large unmanned drone? Nope. No one onboard. The drone potentially simply drifts away potentially as a navigation hazard or until it runs aground somewhere, or until the navy is fortunately able to relocate, recover, and fix.

The jury is still out as to their effectiveness.

Do I hope these drones will work? Yes. I do.

But I am still from Missouri here on this. Again, command and control is a key weakness. If at any time they are required to up-link a signal as part of their command and control , they give away their position to an astute enemy. Further other factors can affect the command and control.

This is not as simple as these articles make it out to be.
 
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