shout out to drug dealers for doing the decent thing and helping us get more batteries into the ocean
Bold to suggest using a sub after the recent tragic sub news.
I'm pretty sure the cartel subs barely go underwater and generally have some part over water.
Hey I'd rather get in the cartel sub that's built correctly than Mr. Stockton Rush's Wild Billionaire Ride
You should trust the narco sub because it's carrying something more valuable than human life: cargo. No way they're gonna let 86 million $ of cocaine fall to the bottom of the ocean.
It probably cost, like, $43 to produce, though. With a high-risk, high-margin good like that you can afford to lose a ton before you have to start worrying about your revenue.
My understanding is that in the last few years they've been capable of fully submerged travel for some period of time. I think I read somewhere that staying near the surface makes them harder to spot with sonar bc of some interaction between sound waves and the surface.
Love to be trapped underwater in a tube that can easily burst into flames on the inside.
The issue with diesel-electric submarines is that they occasionally have to resurface to recharge the batteries (diesel engines need a lot of air). A fully electric submarine can stay submerged the entire way, minimizing the risk of detection.
Also, the exploding batteries thing is mainly an issue with lithium-ion batteries, which are used for their high energy density (both mass and and volume). When you're working with a submarine, energy density isn't as much of a concern as it is with consumer electronics, and alternative battery types can be used.
I don't know how practical of a design a fully electric submarine is though. Maybe it could work for (relatively) short range smuggling missions where you cannot afford to be detected? A fully electric submarine would need a whole lot more batteries than a conventional diesel-electric submarine, so it probably would end up costing a lot more.
They would be trying to balance battery weight/size, and the ability to charge the batteries. Just imagine that it's 10 stolen Tesla car batteries wired together.
The scary part is if there is only 1 bank of batteries, and no way of charging/forcing the sub to the surface when things go wrong.
Yeah, i'd hate to be crossing the road and have one hit me because i couldn't hear it
AFAIK they're as good as silent. They have to be to avoid detection.
Surprise the cocaine was a distraction we're actually smuggling batteries.
The cocaine smuggling arms race is extremely cool and gives me hope it's still possible to beat the police state.
Kinda sad Narcos have ended with Narcos Mexico since they’re afraid of pissing off active cartels. Imagine the action scenes with these submarines