Navy

The U.S. Navy Is Already Designing the Next Attack Submarine

We're nearly two decades away from the time that the U.S. Navy expects to put its next generation of attack subs in the water. But the service is already looking ahead and researching the technologies that will allow future subs to become mother ships to entire fleets of swimming (and flying) drones that find and sink the enemy.

The Navy's current attack sub is the Virginia class. The Virginias are successful and being steadily upgraded with new technologies, but by the 2030s the basic design will be 30 years old. The Navy expects to buy its first next-generation submarine, tentatively titled SSN(X), in 2034 and is currently exploring new technologies to stuff in it.

A key technology, according to U.S. Naval Institute News, is the field of unmanned underwater systems (UUVs). UUVs haven't received as much attention as unmanned aerial vehicles, mostly because they operate underwater. But the Navy is examining a whole slew of missions for UUVs, from mine-hunting to surveillance to even hunting other submarines.