A conceptual design of an underwater vehicle

The paper presents a conceptual design of an underwater star wars' system, which will be more difficult to detect by the enemy than a recently proposed 'surface' star wars' system. The paper suggests that for the proposed structures needed for the underwater star wars' system, the material of construction should be a composite and not a metal, as use of the latter for large deep diving underwater vessels will result in such structures sinking to the bottom of the ocean like stones, due to the fact that they will have no reserve buoyancy. The paper also shows that composites have better sound absorption characteristics, thereby making the underwater structures difficult to detect through sonar equipment. It is proposed that these underwater structures should operate up to a depth of 7.16 miles (11.52 km), as at this depth, all of the oceans' bottoms can be reached. The author shows that current technology can be used to construct and operate such vessels, but more progress needs to be made with metal matrix and ceramic composites, so that the hulls of underwater missiles and torpedoes can be constructed in these materials. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.