THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 1, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
27 Jan 2025
David Axe


The US Navy has revealed the cunning tactic its slow, silent robo-subs will use against China

The US Navy’s new robot submarine is primarily a minelayer, the official leading the program has revealed. The 84-foot Orca is designed to lay so-called “clandestine-delivered mines,” Captain Matt Lewis – a submariner and program manager for the Navy’s Unmanned Maritime Systems office – told The War Zone. “That’s the initial concept,” Lewis said.

This makes sense. Minelaying is the most straightforward task fleet leaders could assign to the Boeing-made Orca as the type undergoes intensive testing this year ahead of its formal entry into front-line service. The US Navy could acquire dozens of the autonomous submarines in the coming years, spending $50 million per boat to help fill an anticipated shortfall in manned submarines as old Cold War vessels decommission.

Sea mines could be some of the most effective – and most efficient – weapons for the most urgent crisis the American fleet could face in the next few years: a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Assuming US President Donald Trump honours the longstanding American commitment to defend Taiwan – hardly a safe assumption, given Trump’s day-one executive order halting all US foreign aid – Orcas dispensing keel-breaking mines could transform the Taiwan Strait into a watery graveyard for the Chinese fleet.