U.S. Navy Unveils World’s First Submarine Equipped With Silent Caterpillar Drive

American submarines are expected to extend their advantages in the undersea domain.

For the first time, the US Navy has fitted a new form of propulsion, magnetohydrodynamic drive (abbreviated the MHD), to a Virginia-class submarine. This promises to make the submarine nearly undetectable, the holy grail of navy warfare.

The Magnetohydrodynamic drive will be developed under the PUMP program by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (abbreviated DARPA), first reported last year.

Water passing via it is sped up using a magnetic field employing superconducting magnets. This is likened to how a caterpillar crawls, resulting in the colloquial term the caterpillar drive.

The first vessel to be fitted with the new propulsion will be the USS Montana (SSN 794). The attack submarine of the Virginia class was commissioned into the US Navy in June 2022. Although she is still a new vessel, she was brought to Groton, Connecticut, for further modifications.

It will likely be incredibly stealthy as there are no shifting mechanical parts. This will make the submarine challenging to detect by utilizing passive sonar, which listens to the noises emitted by a targeted submarine.

Sonar operators scouring for the USS Montana may hear noises indistinguishable from natural phenomena, such as seismic activities.

Rather than a conventional propeller at the stern, the new propulsion will be entirely in the submarine’s hull. Per British specialists, the only external indications are possibly the water intake doors in the vessel’s bow.

These will resemble the torpedo tube shutters but bigger, roughly the diameter of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. They will be placed horizontally, which is remarkable for those missiles.

If the trials are successful, it is time for the new propulsion to be fitted to a bigger number of submarines.

These will include Virginia-class new-build attack submarines and the upcoming SSN-X type. It is improbable that it will be fitted to Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (abbreviated SSBN).

However, it would probably comprise a first-strike capability. There‘s no explanation for making a nuclear deterrent sub so stealthy if it is just aimed at retaliatory strikes. The USS Montana is hoped to undergo sea trials on the Penobscot River in Maine.

This will make it harder for Russia’s Navy to observe the tests. The caterpillar drive propulsions are still in their infancy. Whether the Penobscot River will bring the end to the story or the onset of a new chapter remains to be seen. Either way, Montana will continue to be unseen.

Reference: Naval News

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