A famous
Russian submarine design bureau is working on a drone that imitates
submarines. The drone, tentatively named "Surrogat," could
be a useful decoy in baiting a trap…or escaping one.
The Rubin
Design Bureau of St. Petersberg, designer of Cold War Soviet missile
submarines including the enormous Typhoon class, is working on this
drone for the Russian Navy. According to Russian state media,
"Surrogat" will have a deployable trailing antenna,
allowing it to "realistically reproduce the physical fields
of the enemy—the acoustic and electromagnetic." The
antenna will allow Surrogat to broadcast, for example, the sound made
by a particular class of ballistic missile submarine, as well as the
sub's active sonar signature.
Surrogat
will be 55 feet long and, thanks to lithium-ion batteries, capable of
operating for 15 to16 hours at a time. It will weigh approximately 50
tons with a maximum diving depth of 600 meters and a maximum speed
"in excess of 24 knots."
How could
the Russian Navy use Surrogat? The drone could be useful in wartime
by hunting NATO hunter-killer submarines tasked with destroying
Russia's ballistic missile submarines. Surrogat could imitate a
Borei-class submarine, with Russian attack submarines lying in wait
in an ambush. Any submarine attacking it will give away its own
position, allowing the Russian submarines to close in for the kill.
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