Sub Makes Unexpected Find Under Floating Ice Shelf

Everything was plausible until I got to the 5000 D cells part.

The sub looks like a WWII torpedo.

Heh, I started getting this altered reality feeling at "Yellow Submarine"!

I was thinking about calculating the weight of 5k D cells, but then I said "THAT is what "THEY" would want me to do.

I do like the part about the one sub returning all beat up.

Somewhere there is a P'd off whale.

I have worked around UUV's for the last 14 years. And yes, the concept of using primary cells as an energy source has been used as a cheaper alternative to very expensive secondary cells. Another advantage is that primary cells typically have a higher energy density than secondary cells so you get longer run times. I worked a manned-submersible program for 12 years and at one point, during a battery system upgrade, one vendor proposed doing just that (D-cells) for an energy source. Needless to say, that proposal didn't fly for our requirements, but they actually worked up a solution that did meet the energy requirement. The inability to replenish or recharge on the host did however scuttle that particular idea.

Brave Sir Robin,

Have you had any experience with salt water batteries?

I ask, because I had the opportunity to disassemble a sonobouy with a salt water battery as the power source.

The battery seemed to have significant power density (unscientific observation).

The sonobouys were manufactured by Raytheon and from what I was told, very expensive.

Could it be that these batteries are cost prohibitive?

I'm not familiar with salt water batteries. I have experience with lead-acid, silver-zinc, and li-ion batteries. A Google search did not turn up much other than science demos. No indication of a commercial market. Let us know if you find out anything.

I should have used the term "salt water activated".

Anyway, here is a link: http://www.armedforces-int.com/article/seawateractivated-batteries.html

The sonobouy was military and I am sure there are at least several thousands of them on the bottom of the North Atlantic (They scuttle after a prescribed period).

They were amazing devices, with a co2 deployed antenna, telemetric communication with information on deployed hydrophone depth, water temp and hydrophone direction among other things, all powered by this battery about the size of a standard six volt lantern battery.