submarine built in Colombian jungle

All ample evidence of an extremely entrenched bureaucracy and none of "them" actually willing to address the issues directly. Thus we have drug subs headed our way.

 

If these subs are just below the surface they would easily be detected by arial surveillance.

My suggestion is if us guys are going to get into the drug scene, we should design a sub that looks like a whale. Even have a rubber tail at the back that flaps up and down like a real one don't forget the notches in the tail to keep the whale watchers happy "there goes old Gertrude again". The props would have to be hidden down the side to be more of a jet.

Surfacing for air would look natural.

Getting the drugs out of the "Whalesub" would be easy because when a whale beaches itself people go down to the beach to push it back in. So you wait on the beach, grab the drugs and push the beached whalesub back in.

It would be best not to use our whalesub during the mating season those bloody Humpbacks get a bit rough.

I'm actually convalescing after a bit of surgery and I think the drugs are still having affect.

 

Or train migrating whales to tow coke bags. Can't be that hard.

 

This isn't your typical narco-sub, Tom. It is a genuine diesel-electric like WWII subs, capable of operating fully submersed on batteries for up to 18 hours. It has a fuel ballast system and a hull made out of Kevlar and carbon fiber (which gives it a max depth of only about 60 feet).

 

my understanding is that most narco subs are semi submersibles. Using a snorkel or small conning tower that is just above the surface

They would be built out of fiberglass as that is relatively cheap, and does not require a large shipyard with skilled metal fabricating equipment

I have heard that many of the newer ones use a combination of GPS and internal guidance to autopilot to a predetermined spot off the californian coast. Then the collection boat meets the sub at sea, unloads the drugs, and then goes the five or six hours back to shore. From an engineering point of view, semi submersibles appear very cost effective.

No crew lowers running costs, lowers risk. It should be quite straight forward to program an autopilot to move to a pre-programmed position.

Mechanically a semi submersible is much less complex than a true submersible. The amount of drugs that can be carried onboard is huge, 10 tonnes or more. Also you bypass all the middle guys in Mexico, dont have to pay your cut to them.

Trying to detect a semi submersible is very difficult, they are small, barely awash. Going slow reduces chances of detection, how many hp do you need to go at 3 knots. Can you insulate the engine room from sound and vibration. Perhaps a good passive sonar array could catch them? If they were smart (and I think they are) the drug smugglers would alternate between diesel power and quieter electric to misinimise the times the subs are noisy.

Apparently a lot of teh detection work is done by covert teams in quiet rivers in Columbia. The smart thing to do would be to tow the submarine behind a fishing boat using an underwater cable, so that to the passer by it does not looks suspicious, alternatively, just let it drift downstream with the current.

You can be sure that on many rivers in Columbia there are teams of US special forces with night vision equipment, special sonars, radios, radars, otehr scanners etc, keeping an eye out for these semi submersibels.

If it was up to me I would decriminalise cocaine. Give it out for a nominal cost to registered drug addicts. Would save untold billions in the useless war on drugs. Would get a lot of people that commit crimes just because of drugs out of prison.

For the record, I have never tried cocaine or any other hard drug. I also believe if you commit a crime like a serious theft or an assault or worse you should go to gaol (jail).

As US world influence steadily declines, they may ask themselves, can we still afford to keep up this dumb war on drugs.

The counter arguemnet is that legalising drugs will make them more common. However in Holland where Marijuana is legal, the use of this drug is less than in Germany where it is illegal.

will it happen. no... because US politics is in my opinoin not capable of breaking with the past and steering away from special interests

 

Getting crew out of a semi sub is a great idea.

The hull of a snorting sub works as the air penlum chamber , it provides the engines air if the snorkel is submerged.

This causes the interior to "climb" so the crew will go from sea level to 12,000 ft in seconds.
Big subs have big volumes but these tiny oversized torpedos must be pure hell for a grew.

AS the USA is starting to understand that printing currency can not go on forever , hopefully the DEA , and at least 50% of the gov can simply be closed as a useless expense.

With less funding we will get choices like end the DEA and EPA and failed Dept of Edukation,

OR , not allow farmers to purchase Flood Insurance AFTER the flood.

ADM will always get their millions ,,,

FF

 

Er. Did anyone read the article? These new vehicles aren't semi-submersibles, they are fully operating submarines. That was kind of the point of the article --that this is a huge jump in the technology that the drug smugglers are using.

 

There in, is the problem as this technology using modern materials is now basically within reach of backyard builders. Not all back yard builders are loyal to the country they have managed to get into and not all back yard builders want drugs as their cargo--Drugs could be the least of our worries I can visualize a minisub attack similar to the one carried out by the Japanese at Pearl Harbour. Might be a good time to install submarine nets around out critical waterfront industries. Fanatics driven by a fanatical belief in religions have been with us for hundreds of years and have always been a threat to civilization. ---Geo.

 

Or, alternately, we could quit living in fear of what might happen and get on with our lives.

 

Or we need to design anti-submarines to counter the hypothetical submarines and get somebody to pay us defense $$ to do it.

 

It's not a matter of living in fear, otherwise we would not need police or military. It a matter as the old saying goes "a good defence is the best offence". The sub. net
idea, was just a play on words not to be taken seriously but that we should be aware of the potential of these machines to do a greater harm and maybe start planning some sort of detection system before harms way arrives. Pearl Harbour and 911 are prime examples of how not to plan and prepare-- These were possibly the greatest guerilla surprize attacks since the Trojan Horse. Good preparation reduces living in fear. Putting all that aside these are just amazing looking machines one should never underestimate need, being the mother of invention.

 

There is nothing new on the planet. And you can believe that around any major US Naval installation potentially threatened by underwater attack are several layers of passive and active detection systems that nobody talks about.
In WW1 some typically bravura Italians pulled the act off in fine style.
http://www.istrianet.org/istria/navigation/sea/navy/viribus-unitis/viribus-frogmen-eng.htm

 

Soon, they will probably ban fiberglass and epoxy in the USA.

Maybe they'll take my picture, hand prints, DNA sample and a retina scan next time I need more materials.

Or... maybe an FBI background check like they do for guns.

Ah... land of the "free".

 

Battan, so right you are, forgot about that little Italian caper. Catbuilder you won't have to worry about Fiberglass and Resin being banned, If the cost of oil rises much more no one will be able to afford it anyhow. Once the cost of fiberglass, resin, and acetone(prime ingredient for cocane production) equals the street value of coke then the drug buisness will collapse. It will be too expensive to build the subs or process the drug. Hey maybe thats what the governments are up to. They're predicting the price of gas to go to $1.50 a liter this summer in Canada, thats $1.50 x 3.8= $5.70 a U.S. gal. Yup the sailboat build was a good idea.---Geo.

 

If GRP becomes too expensive, Kero already solved that with the suggestion of making it out of concrete.

If we have crewless subs, then they don't have to conform to the normal sub shape because headroom is not required. They can be torpedo shaped. Much more efficient to propell through the water, can be made of steel tube for quick and easy production, difficult to detect.

The risk in drug trafficing is at the shoreline of countries, both for despatching and receiving. However if you can launch it and retrieve it from up a river with obviously a very accurate guidence system you would cruise past all of the custom check points.

Don't forget the cutters on the nose to cut through fishing nets.

Or: These drug lords could afford a large steel boat for cruising the world. They attach the torpedos to the side of their boats with magnets when they get close to the drop off point the torpedos disengage and cruise in up a river to collected, this way you can use smaller torpedos that can be handled easier because you will not require as much battery power. Also if you do get stopped by customs at any time you can detach the torpedos so there is no evidence of the drugs.

It is important to know how drug trafficing could be done, so you are better prepared to detect it. I am totally against drugs, totally against legalising it whatever crackpot reason anyone has for doing so. Untill I've finished my making my torpedo