The Ministry of Defense's weapons development administration (Mafat) is targeting a global market worth $2 billion annually.

The Ministry of Defense's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (Mafat) has set the next challenge for Israel's defense industry: do for unmanned submarines what it did for unmanned aerial warfare. If the defense industry moves quickly and purposefully in identifying this emerging market, and offers a well-functioning unmanned submarine, it could be riding the right wave in a decade from now: Mafat aeronautics division director Dr. Yuval Cohen estimates that the market will be worth $2 billion a year in 2020.

If Israel was the spearhead of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), there is no reason why it cannot spearhead unmanned submarines. "We have the academic infrastructures and skills needed to work on the development of tools in this field, and if the defense industry invests the necessary resources in R&D, it will have something to sell the world, because there will be strong demand for these platforms," Cohen told "Globes".


http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000885952

I thought those were called "torpedoes".

ETA: Yes, I understand that there are a multitude of differences between what is being proposed and an actual torpedo.

It's a bit easier to reliably communicate to, and get information back from, an aerial vehicle than an underwater one.

Cool. That sucks for Iran

I'll get excited when someone comes up with unmanned infantry.*














*And no, I'm not talking about the current U.S. military trend toward recruiting queers, women, and she-males.

 

Unmanned undersea vehicles actually make more sense than UAVs, really.  Things happen a hell of a lot slower underwater than in the air.  Normal submarines are almost completely reliant on sensors anyway (nobody's looking out of the window to drive), and a lot of the ocean is shallow enough to just go get the thing off the bottom if something goes wrong.

Typical joos.
Too cheap to pay the crew

Would be an awesome idea for Taiwan.


 Remote electric sub with VLS? Good way to increase the range of AShMs and SAMs.

Once it's developed, this will be the case:

Yeh, that's a problem.

Reliable, covert communication with a sub usually involves very low-frequency radio - and VERY slow data rates.

By contrast, one of the main reasons why UAVs have become practical in recent years is the development of methods of transferring vast amounts of data, almost instantaneously. None of the frequencies used with UAVs work very well under water.

Still, maybe they're counting on increased autonomy to minimize the communications requirements.

How hard is it to program a sub to pilot itself in a circle in blue water, checking periodically to get a dead man code, and if it doesn't, to go blow up a port?

Lol!

That's the point I was making... operating under the ocean lends itself more readily to autonomy than operating in the sky or on the ground.

LOL!! That's funny

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I guess that would be a bad time for the crypto to suddenly zeroize itself.

I asked you hard it would be, not how realistic my goddamn plan was.  I want sharks with fricken laser beams.