this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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This is used for launching torpedoes, they are called wire guided. Although they mostly use thin copper wire for that. But the seas are vast. It would mean you would need cables of hundreds of kilometers per drone, they will break under its own weight after a few hundred meters, if they are even able to reach that. Even if you only want to use them to defend your territorial waters, that's 12nmi (22km) from your coastline.
Another option you might think off is a cable to the surface, but it will be dragged down when the drone moves. Warships usually move between 20 and 30 kts, carriers can go even faster. You need a drone capable of catching up but with these speeds there's a significant amount of drag. The wire guided torpedoes have a copper wire spool so it doesn't pull a wire though the water, but lays the wire behind it. If you want to have a drone with a massive fiber optic cable winch inside itself, the drones will get huge.
So when using cables, drones are kinda useless as it would only work short range and we already have torpedoes which are very effective at sinking ships. Only one is needed to sink a massive ship. It explodes under the ship, creating a massive amount of pressure, then a vacume, breaking any ship in half. As you can see here.
So current submersible drones are operating autonomously and are not remotely controlled. This is the best option imo, or like I said before: semisubmersibles. But engaging targets autonomously is a tricky thing. You don't want it to accidentally hit the wrong one. But when you have an acoustic profile of your target, it's definitely possible. There are already torpedoes with these capabilities, as well as missiles targeting radar profiles or locking on stored images. But like I said before, you need to have this information about your target. So in most cases a sub needs to have logged the ship while being close to it.