Submarines were once considered the stealthiest assets of navies. Not anymore. Studies from China suggest that new tech can break the code of the stealth used on submarines, which make them powerful war machines.
These innovations that detect underwater vessels can change the face of naval warfare. Artificial Intelligence and magnetic wake detection are some of the methods being used to achieve this. Here is what you should know.
China is developing submarine detection technologies using AI. How it works
The studies from China suggest that subs could be highly vulnerable to artificial intelligence (AI) and magnetic field detection technologies, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
In a study published in August, a team led by Meng Hao from the China Helicopter Research and Development Institute revealed an AI-powered anti-submarine warfare (ASW) system.
Led by AI, this tech is being touted as the first of its kind, enabling automated decision-making in detecting submarines.
As per the study published in the journal Electronics Optics & Control, the ASW system mimics a smart battlefield commander, integrating real-time data from sonar buoys, radar, underwater sensors, and ocean conditions like temperature and salinity.
Powered by AI, the system can autonomously analyse and adapt, slashing a submarine’s escape chances to just 5 per cent.
This would mean only one in 20 submarines could evade detection and attack.
This will be a significant shift in naval warfare, with researchers warning that the “invisible” submarine era is ending.
Stealth may soon be an impossible feat, Meng’s team said.
China can track US submarines via ‘magnetic wakes’
In December last year, scientists from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi’an, revealed a novel method for tracking submarines via ‘magnetic wakes’.
The study led by Associate Professor Wang Honglei, models how submarines generate faint magnetic fields as they disturb seawater, creating ‘Kelvin wakes’.
These wakes, long after the vessel has passed, leave “footprints in the ocean’s magnetic fabric,” said the study, published in the Journal of Harbin Engineering University on December 4.
For example, a Seawolf-class submarine travelling at 24 knots and 30 metres depth generates a magnetic field of 10-¹² tesla-detectable by existing airborne magnetometres.
This method exploits a critical vulnerability in submarines, the Kelvin wakes, that ‘cannot be silenced,’ Wang’s team said.
This is in contrast to the acoustic – or sound-based- detection, which submarines can counter with sound-dampening technologies.
Together, the studies suggest that AI and magnetic detection could soon make submarine stealth a thing of the past.