NatGeo_Super Sub
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00:00The U.S.S. Texas, a submarine unlike any other.
00:30It's cruising depth, nearly a thousand feet beneath the sea.
00:36It's weapons, some of the world's deadliest torpedoes, missiles, and special ops commanders.
00:46It's mission, deliver a crushing blow wherever it's needed, against enemies at sea, and on
00:55land.
00:56It's time to peel back the steel on this underwater juggernaut, revealing the awesome
01:02technology behind its strength and power.
01:10Technology that makes this 400 foot submarine invisible, and keeps 118 men alive at depths
01:18no human can survive.
01:22Ready to respond to any threat.
01:29Now, fathom the secrets of the super sub.
01:52The U.S.S. Texas is on a classified mission.
02:06Our intel has shown that there is a super tanker en route to Norfolk, carrying possible
02:14weapons of mass destruction.
02:16An oil tanker, loaded with deadly weapons, is sailing toward the coast.
02:20If the Texas can't stop her, thousands could die.
02:31No other sub is better equipped to intervene.
02:37The U.S.S. Texas, and her sister sub, the U.S.S. Virginia, are among the Navy's latest
02:42class of attack submarines, and that makes the Texas one of the most sophisticated submarines
02:48ever built.
02:51She's 377 feet long, and weighs over 7,800 tons, but she can maneuver through shallow
03:00coastal waters as easily as the deep ocean.
03:03The mission right now is to intercept this super tanker, and destroy it using ATCAP torpedoes.
03:11Looks like we're in a good position to achieve a firing position.
03:14In the blink of an eye, she sends the tanker to a watery grave.
03:21This time, it's only a training exercise.
03:25But the crew of the Texas knows next time could be the real thing.
03:33They're sailing on the latest generation of super sub.
03:37The Texas represents a radical leap in sub design.
03:44It's among the deepest, and longest running nuclear attack submarines ever built.
03:52To plumb the secrets of the super sub, we'll build it from scratch, watch it become a weapon,
04:05and reveal how a 7,800 ton shark becomes invisible, and can spot a potential enemy a thousand
04:13miles away.
04:17We'll see how other super subs are challenging its supremacy, and stealth, and firepower,
04:27and see what happens when disaster strikes.
04:31The secrets of the super sub begin long before its first dive.
04:43This is the birthplace of the American submarine fleet for over a century.
04:47The USS Texas is the product of two shipyards, Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman, and she's
04:54one of the first American warships designed entirely on a computer.
04:58John, let's take a close-up view of the auxiliary machinery room module.
05:05Engineers walk virtual crewmen through the engine room to perfect its layout, a tight
05:10fit that has to accommodate crew, engines, generators, and propulsion machinery.
05:19Clash detection software tests the smallest details, like the opening and closing of weapon
05:24tube hatches.
05:27It can reveal any collision between hatch and clasp before construction begins.
05:34Last step, the design software sends the approved blueprints directly to the machines that cut
05:39the steel, shape components, and bend pipes.
05:46Now it's time to build the Texas, and that process is just as revolutionary.
05:52Groton submakers used to build their boats from the inside out, working in the cramped
05:57space of the hull.
06:00Engineers say that's like building a Swiss watch through the stem.
06:08Now they'll build the Texas the opposite way, from the outside in.
06:12They'll construct separate modules of everything a submarine needs, the engine room, the torpedo
06:18room, and its nerve center, the command and control room.
06:27Each component slides neatly into the hull.
06:30But an ingenious design doesn't guarantee the Texas will survive in the real world,
06:38a world of airless, dark depths, crushing water pressures, and hostile weapons.
06:45Our designers test her toughness on their computers with a devastating virtual assault
06:51from an enemy mine or torpedo.
06:53What we're going to see here is a mathematical simulation of an underwater explosion that's
06:57the result of a combat action.
07:02Unlike a land explosion, a torpedo or mine doesn't shatter its target with a single blow.
07:08An underwater blast generates a series of shock waves so powerful that it could make
07:13a submarine tear itself apart.
07:17When the computer hits the virtual Texas, red spots indicate she's feeling the pain.
07:24Yet her designers know that her enemies will never stop building even deadlier weapons
07:30to destroy her.
07:34After five years on the factory floor, one million parts, a thousand miles of fiber optics
07:41and cables, 14 million hours of labor, and over $2 billion, the USS Texas is finally
07:51ready for action.
07:58Workers roll her onto a giant floating dry dock as it carefully delivers her to the sea,
08:07her home, and her deadliest enemy.
08:14For no human adversary threatens submarines like the deep ocean.
08:24The Texas and its sister subs carry 118 men, but the super sub's most important mission
08:30is to take those men where they cannot possibly survive, hundreds of feet underwater, and
08:38keep them safe for months at crushing depths.
08:43More than anything else, she must never fail to give her crew the most basic of all human
08:48needs, air.
08:55The first submariners knew they were running out of oxygen when they started getting sick.
09:01Crews were sometimes actually poisoned by a combination of either the diesel fumes or
09:07the battery fumes.
09:11Earlier subs tried keeping their crews alive with tanks of pressurized gas, snorkel tubes
09:16to draw clean air from the surface, and even chemicals that released oxygen.
09:22But the Texas has a revolutionary oxygen generator.
09:27Even when she's running hundreds of feet deep, her crew breathes better air than what you're
09:33breathing right now.
09:37Onboard sensors continuously monitor the air supply, scrubbing it with filters that trap
09:44contaminants, remove carbon dioxide, and suck out excess moisture.
09:51And while she's submerged, the Texas replenishes its air from an unexpected source, the ocean
09:58around her.
10:00It can actually turn seawater into clean air by separating its basic chemical components,
10:07hydrogen and oxygen.
10:10In one hour, the Texas can extract nearly 225 cubic feet of oxygen, more than twice
10:18what her crew needs to survive.
10:20Yet submariners never truly breathe easy.
10:24The deeper they dive, the greater the danger.
10:32Just how deep the USS Texas can dive is classified.
10:36The Navy will only admit to 800 feet, as deep as the Eiffel Tower is high.
10:42How's that?
10:43All conditions?
10:44We're willing to dive 155 feet.
10:45Very well, Bob.
10:48At that depth, the water pressure would instantly kill a human, with more than 360 pounds per
10:54square inch of crushing force.
10:58It's like parking a truck on your chest.
11:04Aboard the Texas, all that stands between life and death is three inches of metal.
11:10Not just any metal, high-pressure structural steel, called HY-100, the strongest submarine
11:17hull ever built.
11:20But the Texas' job is not just to survive, it's to fight and win.
11:28The super sub boasts one of the deadliest arsenals on Earth.
11:34But another nation is developing a torpedo so fast that the USS Texas may not detect
11:40it before it strikes.
11:46Turning a submarine into a weapon requires two technological feats, stealth and firepower.
11:53The U.S. Navy's Virginia-class subs, the USS Texas and Virginia, are among the most powerful
12:00underwater weapons ever built.
12:05When these predators go into action, they dive out of sight like every other submarine.
12:17But the key to destroying an enemy is to see and hear it before it hears you.
12:22And the super sub has some of the most powerful underwater eyes and ears ever made.
12:30Captain, gain new submerged contact, Sierra 6-3 bearing 3-0-7 in ATF.
12:37Very well.
12:38Attention, control.
12:39Sonar gain new contact, Sierra 6-3.
12:42I intend to engage this contact with one ADCAT torpedo as soon as I have a firing salute.
12:51Earlier subs had to scan the surface through a periscope.
12:57They couldn't see more than a few miles away.
13:01But the super sub sees the world through space-age cameras that can peer tens of miles away.
13:11All stations coordinators, Sierra 6-3 has contact bearing 3-0-7.
13:14There's a contact of interest track, Sierra 6-3.
13:17These cameras send crisp images to the control room.
13:22Sir, we have a contact that's about nine miles away.
13:25You can see how close we can pick him up here when we magnify the scope.
13:30An infrared laser range finder tells the crew the exact distance to the target, an enemy ship.
13:38The Texas has locked on to its target.
13:41Now it's time to destroy it.
13:47The torpedo is still the submarine's signature weapon,
13:50famous from World War II when German subs hunted Allied warships in squadrons called wolf packs.
14:01But a super sub is a wolf pack of one.
14:05It can carry 38 torpedoes, three times as many torpedoes as the Type 7 German U-boat did.
14:14In its bow, four 21-inch torpedo tubes can launch both torpedoes and missiles.
14:22Captain, I have a firing solution, sir.
14:24Very well.
14:25Firing point procedures, Sierra 6-3, tube 4.
14:30Historically, crews had to move and load two-ton torpedoes by hand.
14:36A slow, dangerous process.
14:39Caution, guidestun must be allotted, guidestun to bearing 2.
14:43Today, it's fully automated.
14:45Torpedo men can load and reload tubes in one-third of the time.
14:50Solution ready.
14:52Ship ready.
14:53Shoot, tube 4.
14:54Shooting, torpedo tube 4.
14:58Pressurized water propels the torpedo from the sub toward its target.
15:04A piston engine with two propellers maximizes the torpedo's power.
15:09Center hold zone ship's unit running normally.
15:12But the torpedo isn't flying blind.
15:15It trails a wire, plugged into the weapon systems aboard the sub, using data to navigate.
15:22The bomb accelerates to 32 knots, over 35 miles an hour, with a range of 8 miles.
15:31And as it nears its target, the wire is cut, and its sonar takes over navigation.
15:41This one torpedo has the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT.
15:47Weapon is acquisition.
15:49If the torpedo misses its target, it can circle back around and re-attack.
15:54Exploder arms.
15:55Detonating below the ship.
15:58Loud explosion on the bearing of Sierra 6-3.
16:01But there's one flaw in the super sub's torpedoes.
16:04Enemy sonar can hear them coming, giving their targets a chance to avoid them before they strike.
16:11But half a world away, engineers are building a new kind of torpedo, one that no one can detect.
16:19One that can kill a super sub.
16:25Proving ground of the Barracuda, the torpedo of tomorrow.
16:30The Barracuda torpedo replaces the piston engine with a rocket engine.
16:36It can power the Barracuda through water at 360 kilometers per hour.
16:42Nearly four times faster than the super sub's torpedoes.
16:47The Barracuda is so fast, it actually creates a pocket of air underwater.
16:52The only thing touching the water is the nose cone that steers it.
16:57It's a phenomenon known as super cavitation.
17:01Moving through air produces less friction than moving through water.
17:06And less friction means greater speed.
17:10And it goes so fast that no target can possibly get out of the way in time.
17:16And it's just going to hit.
17:18Traveling faster than the speed of sound, the Barracuda actually outruns its own sound waves.
17:26Even a super sub's sonar may not hear the Barracuda until it strikes.
17:33As torpedoes like the Barracuda become more advanced, the super sub's only defense is to improve its stealth.
17:43Running silent has long been the submariner's greatest advantage.
17:48A technological game of cat and mouse that has been escalating since World War II.
17:53Naval engineers are developing top secret designs that give the USS Texas the ultimate advantage.
18:02Invisibility.
18:09The submarine was born to be stealthy.
18:13But to the latest generation of super subs like the USS Texas, stealth means more than hiding underwater.
18:23It means becoming what submariners call a hole in the water.
18:28Speed in utter silence.
18:32A critical innovation, because when a sub loses the element of surprise, the results can be devastating.
18:421942. The German Navy uses the stealth of their Unterseeboot, the U-boat, to reign supreme.
18:52Roaming in wolf packs, striking almost invisibly, the U-boats sink supply ships by the thousands.
19:01But the U-boats have an Achilles heel. They must surface at night to recharge their batteries.
19:09The Allies arm warships and planes with radar to locate the U-boats.
19:16It turns the once feared hunters into the prey.
19:20Once they were located, they were in a way defeated already.
19:27The U-boats don't stand a chance on the surface.
19:31They dive and make a run for it.
19:34But their fate is sealed by sonar.
19:38A technology whose name means sound, navigation and ranging.
19:44A transmitter sends an electrical impulse from the surface ship, which releases a sound wave into the water.
19:51The classic ping from submarine movies.
19:56Traveling at 4,800 feet per second, the sound waves bounce back from solid objects.
20:05Revealing the hidden U-boat.
20:12Sonar exacts a heavy toll on the mighty U-boats.
20:26For a super sub to remain undetected by modern sonar, it must become a hole in the water, quieter than the surrounding sea.
20:38Far from the oceans, a secret laboratory is perfecting stealth.
20:43Working to make the Texas invisible.
20:52Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho.
20:56Hundreds of miles from the prying eyes and ears of potential adversaries.
21:03Cameras have never before had permission to film the cutthroat.
21:07The largest unmanned submarine in the world.
21:10Its job, teach engineers to make the Texas even quieter.
21:15This one-third scale model of the USS Texas is a perfect likeness.
21:20Right down to the top secret propulsor.
21:23Specially designed to increase thrust and most importantly, minimize noise.
21:30Inside, a massive array of batteries power the sub's brain.
21:36A bank of computers that pilot the model following a programmed course.
21:42At over a thousand feet deep, this cold water lake is one of the quietest testing grounds in the world.
21:50Perfect for evaluating classified designs like stealth battleships invisible to radar.
22:00Every waterborne vehicle has a unique acoustic signature.
22:05The sound made by water moving over its hull.
22:22If the Virginia class subs have an acoustic weakness, these men are among the few on earth who know what it is.
22:28That's primitive. Receive this sound.
22:31Underwater microphones listen in as the sub dives.
22:36Allowing the Navy to hear what an enemy would hear.
22:41The hydrophones are so sensitive we can detect snow falling on the water right now.
22:49Here, fine tuning the design of this sub to maximize stealth is an obsession.
22:55We've made very, very minute, very, very detailed changes, especially in the propulsor.
23:00That have made significant improvements in the acoustic performance of the propeller.
23:07Making a hole in the water means more than just building a mechanically and hydrodynamically quiet submarine.
23:16It means absorbing sound.
23:20Sources from outside the Navy say most modern subs are coated with a material called anechoic, or anti-echo.
23:28When a sonar ping strikes the sub, this classified rubber-like material actually absorbs the sound without reflecting it back to the source.
23:40Stealth is important to the super sub's survival.
23:44But if the USS Texas and her sister, the Virginia, want to survive in this open ocean battlefield,
23:50they must see and hear the world around them.
23:54To navigate, attack, or defend themselves against enemies.
24:01The super sub literally paints a picture of her environment with sound.
24:08It's our only way to know what's in front of us, what's to the left, what's to the right,
24:12and where we have to go to avoid running into other ships in the sea.
24:18Obviously, we don't have windows, so when submerged, this is true.
24:24The super sub's ability to see and hear the world around her,
24:28this is true.
24:30The super sub can hear better than any sub man has ever put into the water.
24:35It has ten sonar arrays, mounted in the sail, on the sides, in the bow, and one towed behind her.
24:44All working with sound to produce a view of the underwater landscape like never before.
24:51Each line on the screen represents a contact.
24:55Anything in or on the water that makes noise, from a whale, to a cruise ship, to a fishing boat.
25:03This is a merchant ship. It sounds like just a coastal merchant, probably not anything real large.
25:12And what you're hearing, when we're listening to this, is actually the screw turning in the water,
25:17and air bubbles forming and then collapsing on the tips and the face of the blades,
25:22as well as just the sound of it turning and propelling the ship through the water.
25:28The final piece of technology that allows the super sub to find its enemy
25:33lies hidden behind a composite material building.
25:37The spherical bow array. Mounted with hundreds of hydrophones,
25:42it allows sonar operators to hear ships in the water up to a thousand miles away.
25:48Consonor, gain new wall detection bearing 258, designate Sierra 4.
25:53Sonar signals are processed by computers with more number-crunching power
25:58than nearly every U.S. sub in history could ever produce.
26:03Yet there are some threats that the Texas may simply not be able to hear until it's too late.
26:14A technological ghost from World War II has returned to haunt the oceans.
26:22The waning days of the war, using rockets and missiles,
26:29the waning days of the war.
26:32Using radar, the Allies devastate the German submarine fleet.
26:38The Germans realize the U-boat's fatal flaw.
26:42Its mechanical engines periodically need air to recharge their batteries.
26:48Every time a U-boat surfaces, it's dangerously exposed.
26:53A brilliant German engineer, Helmut Walter, devises a way to keep U-boats underwater longer.
27:00It's called Air Independent Propulsion, or AIP.
27:07The Type 21 U-boat is born.
27:11He had ideas which were revolutionary in a way.
27:14So he invented the streamlined submarine, capable of doing high speeds,
27:19was far ahead of his time.
27:22The Type 21 accomplishes unprecedented stealth.
27:25The secret? A massive bank of batteries that enable the sub to remain submerged longer
27:31and still reach speeds of 16 knots, faster than the U.S. convoys on the surface.
27:38But the war ends before Germany can unleash Air Independent Propulsion
27:44and the world's first super-sub.
27:49Fifty years later, the concept of AIP resurfaces, both in Germany and Sweden.
27:57The Swedish Navy's Gatland measures merely 200 feet, half the size of the Texas.
28:04Intended for coastal defense, the Gatland values stealth over firepower.
28:12Her secret?
28:15The incredibly quiet Cockham's Stirling engine.
28:20It uses a mix of diesel fuel and liquid oxygen to power a generator,
28:26which in turn powers the ship's ultra-quiet electric motor.
28:33Stealth on one side, stealth on the other side.
28:36Encased in soundproofing, the Gatland's engine is so quiet, so hard to detect,
28:42that the U.S. Navy has rented her from Sweden for use in war games.
28:49One of the worst things that Texas could encounter is one of the new generation AIP submarines,
28:56laying in wait, that knows the territory, knows where the nooks and crannies around the continental shelf are,
29:03and understands the local acoustics.
29:08If Sweden's Gatland-class sub is quiet, this German sub is almost silent.
29:15The 212 Alpha.
29:18It cannot outrun or outgun a steel shark like the Texas,
29:22but it's powered by a chemical reaction so quiet that builders say it can disappear at will.
29:36The 212 Alpha.
29:39Born in the same shipyards that would have built Walter's revolutionary AIPU boat.
29:45Even design, we are designing the shaping of the submarine.
29:51Today's German Navy isn't building hunter-killers, but sentries and spies to patrol shallow waters.
29:59The 212 Alpha's stealth begins on the outside.
30:03Its hull design slips quietly through the water, reflecting little sound.
30:10And interestingly, the welding is done on the spot.
30:14Computers cut every piece of the sub, and before workers weld hull sections together,
30:20they reheat them to give them maximum strength.
30:23A process so incredibly precise, it measures errors in millimeters.
30:29When it's finished, the 212 Alpha's even smaller than the Gatland,
30:33and doesn't need a nuclear power plant or the Gatland's mechanical engine.
30:39We do not need any piston engine generators, clutches, or something like that.
30:45The old technology is gone.
30:48We have the new technology with fuel cells.
30:52To power this generation of submarines, the German Navy uses fuel cells.
30:59Often cited as the ultimate source of cheap energy for homes and cars.
31:10This is what the 212 Alpha sounds like when using its conventional diesel engine.
31:18When it wants to slip silently below the waves, it switches on a bank of fuel cells.
31:27And with a flick of a switch, the 212 Alpha disappears.
31:33Yes, the boat is switched to silent mode now, and we are switching on the fuel cell plant.
31:38And the fuel cell plant powers the propulsion engine.
31:41This electrical engine runs with more than 1,000 horsepower now, and you don't hear anything.
31:46We are a hole in the water now.
31:52The German Navy won't reveal just how long and how fast the 212 Alpha can run underwater on its fuel cells.
32:00They say only that it can stay submerged and hidden for weeks on end.
32:06It's fine to have a stealthy submarine like a nuclear, but this is more.
32:11This is super stealthy.
32:17Impressive as it is, super stealth alone doesn't make a super sub.
32:26Firepower, endurance, unlimited reach, all put the Texas in a class by itself.
32:39But every submariner knows the ocean is more powerful than any sub ever built.
32:46One breach can flood an entire ship in minutes.
32:51Even a minor mechanical failure or human error can turn the super sub into an incinerator.
33:00If catastrophe strikes, survival will depend on the fast action of her crew
33:04and some ingenious devices that are revolutionizing underwater rescues.
33:18Nothing man can construct, not even the most advanced submarine in the world, the super sub,
33:24is impervious to the crushing forces of the deep.
33:29Weapons of war or human error.
33:34Before a crew dares take a submarine to sea, they must learn how to operate it flawlessly
33:40and they must know how to keep her from killing them when disaster strikes.
33:46A collision against an undersea mountain 600 feet below the surface breaches the sub's hull.
33:54And sends 12,000 gallons per minute of bone-chilling water into the engine room.
34:00The situation instantly goes from bad to worse.
34:07Unrelenting pressure causes intake pipes and valves to burst.
34:16These men have only seconds to manage the crisis
34:19and save the sub.
34:26One false move may kill them.
34:30It's a scenario that plays out daily in a Navy wet trainer.
34:39Submariners run the exercise again and again.
34:43Submariners run the exercise again and again.
34:47This time, they manage to stop the breach.
34:51Barely.
35:01This is where submariners learn everything they'll see, hear and feel
35:08when operating a super sub during a mission or a crisis.
35:13Before they're handed the keys to a $2.5 billion submarine,
35:18they'll learn to dive and drive their new sub in a VSCOT,
35:23Virginia-class Ship Control Operator Trainer.
35:31This simulator is about as close to being out to sea without being out to sea that we're ever going to get.
35:38And with that comes the adrenaline of being under way.
35:42The pilot's job is mission critical, especially when disaster strikes.
35:55Knowing how to surface the super sub in seconds
35:59may be the difference between life and death.
36:04January 8, 2005.
36:07The USS San Francisco is cruising Pacific waters south of Guam.
36:13Its navigational charts are incomplete and the captain and his crew unaware.
36:18Without warning, this 7,000-ton submarine crashes headfirst into an undersea mountain.
36:25Ninety-eight of its 137 sailors are injured.
36:30And one fatally.
36:33But the San Francisco does not die.
36:37And what is amazing is that that crew, bloodied, beaten up, hurting,
36:43immediately were able to go and become their own lifesavers,
36:48sustaining their efforts to go ahead and deal with damage, flooding,
36:53systems that had gone bad and get themselves to the surface.
36:57When the sub finally limps into dry dock in Guam,
37:00the extent of her damage is stunning.
37:04Her sonar dome crushed.
37:07Three ballast tanks damaged.
37:10And all four torpedo tubes deformed and inoperable.
37:14But like the Texas, this sub can survive a staggering blow from the outside.
37:21Yet every submariner knows that a much deadlier enemy strikes from within.
37:26Co-red machine, co-red from the forward trim pump, primary pump.
37:30Fire.
37:40This is one of the worst casualties that we could possibly experience.
37:44The entire crew, the entire submarine is at stake.
37:50Smoke can cut visibility to zero.
37:57It's like being trapped in a burning building.
38:02It starts wearing you down.
38:05Over time, you start getting tired, exhausted.
38:11Temperatures can quickly soar into the hundreds of degrees.
38:15Unchecked, up to 2,000 degrees.
38:18It starts expiring pretty heavy, getting dehydrated.
38:22And that's the key, you don't want to get dehydrated.
38:25Submarines aren't just watertight, they're airtight, a closed container.
38:34A fire on a sub can literally suck the air from the men's lungs.
38:40We don't have the luxury of calling for help and having assistance.
38:44If there's a fire, we have to put it out.
38:47It's a do or die situation.
38:49Training in real-time simulators like this is a sub crew's best defense against an onboard catastrophe like fire.
39:01But no simulated training can defend them against a silent predator that lurks in dark waters.
39:08Lying in wait indefinitely, one of a sub's deadliest enemies.
39:15The mine.
39:16Since the end of the Vietnam War, mines have caused more damage to U.S. warships
39:22than all the other kinds of weapons combined that have been used against us.
39:27Finding mines is dull, dangerous work.
39:36In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the U.S. Navy is perfecting a secret weapon.
39:42The UUV, or Unmanned Undersea Vehicles.
39:47Advanced scouts that map minefields.
39:51The Bluefin 21 looks like a torpedo because it's designed to be shot from a torpedo tube.
39:58But this machine isn't designed to kill.
40:01Its mission is to save lives by identifying mines before they explode.
40:07The trade-off for the Navy, sacrifice a half-million dollar UUV to save a multi-billion dollar sub and its crew.
40:16Texas' ability to launch unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs,
40:22that can go out and conduct mine hunting and mine surveillance, is a critical, critical capability.
40:29We started this green flag and transited this green dot here.
40:33Tom Barrett, of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, wants to test the mine-mapping capabilities of the UUV.
40:40To see how the Bluefin works, he gives it the task of finding a shipwreck.
40:45What's the resolution of the ship?
40:48This sonar goes down to 10 centimeters resolution.
40:51So we should get a pretty good picture of whatever's laying on the seafloor.
40:54The UUV pilots itself with artificial intelligence.
40:58It will run along parallel paths three-quarters of a mile long and 500 feet wide,
41:04avoiding unexpected obstacles while taking pictures and staying on course.
41:12The Bluefin can map eight square miles of ocean in one mission,
41:17cruising for up to 18 hours.
41:20But recovering the UUV is much harder than launching it.
41:25As you know, we launch it out of the torpedo tube like a regular torpedo.
41:29The hard part is getting it back onto the boat.
41:32Engineers at Electric Boat are already planning to retrofit the Texas with an ingenious arm
41:39that will reach out to grab the UUV and pull it back out of the water.
41:43Back at the demonstration, the Bluefin crew retrieves their UUV
41:47and downloads the data from its hardware, just as the crew of the Texas will.
41:55Tom and the Bluefin team scan the images to see if the UUV is still in the water.
42:00The UUV is still in the water.
42:03The Bluefin is still in the water.
42:06The UUV is still in the water.
42:09Tom and the Bluefin team scan the images to see if the UUV found the shipwreck.
42:18The UUV has proven itself, forcing the murky water to give up its secrets with stunning resolution.
42:31But if the UUV fails on a real mission, minds can devastate a sub.
42:37And when a submarine's in trouble, deep underwater,
42:41the crew's only hope for survival is another kind of super sub,
42:46built to pull sailors from the jaws of death.
42:54The DSRV, Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle.
42:59The Navy calls it the Mystic.
43:02Kept on call 24-7,
43:07the Mystic can fly anywhere in the world, loaded on board a plane,
43:13or piggybacked on a specially configured attack submarine.
43:19All it takes is a phone call, we should be able to be on a plane within four hours.
43:24Within 24 hours, the Mystic's on site.
43:27Its sonar listens for the crippled sub's distress signal and zeroes in on its location.
43:33That's right over the target.
43:35Every second is precious to a crew whose air supply is fading.
43:40The pilot establishes radio communications with the downed sub's crew.
43:45This is Mystic.
43:50This drill takes place in a tank that's merely 30 feet deep.
43:54But the Mystic's fiberglass hull hides three interconnected spheres
43:59that can withstand the pressure of a 5,000-foot dive, nearly one mile deep.
44:07Once the pilot has a visual on the sub's escape hatch,
44:11Looks like we're right over.
44:13he carefully guides the Mystic into place
44:17and makes a watertight seal.
44:19In a real-life scenario, 24 men at a time would scramble through the hatch to safety
44:25and live to fight another day.
44:31Generations of submariners went to sea risking hidden undersea dangers,
44:36on-board fires, and naval mines.
44:39The crew of the USS Texas faces those traditional perils with state-of-the-art equipment
44:44and the most advanced training in the history of the silent service.
44:50But the Texas and her crew must also combat a new kind of enemy
44:54that attacks from multiple fronts,
44:57conceals its position,
45:00and runs covert operations on land and sea.
45:05The worldwide threat of terrorism.
45:09And in the war against terror,
45:11the super sub fully reveals her awesome power to search and destroy.
45:21October 12, 2000.
45:24The American destroyer USS Cole refuels in the port of Yemen.
45:29A small boat approaches and detonates,
45:33punching a 40-by-60-foot hole in the ship,
45:36killing 17 sailors.
45:41The Cole attack is a chilling reminder that in the new century,
45:46there's a new kind of global warfare.
45:50Enemies hiding in secret safe houses, plotting terror.
45:57Incapable of striking anywhere, anytime.
46:01Incapable of striking anywhere, anytime.
46:06But terrorists like the Cole bombers now face a formidable opponent.
46:12The super sub.
46:20It's the perfect linchpin in any future attack on terrorists,
46:25before they can strike.
46:28Submarines used to operate as lone wolves,
46:32going months without communicating with the fleet
46:35for fear of revealing their position.
46:37But today, the super sub communicates with headquarters
46:41by releasing a small buoy that floats to the surface on a 2,000-foot cable.
46:50The buoy will link the super sub to a communications network called ForceNet.
46:55The network will allow all Navy assets on Earth to coordinate an attack.
47:10ForceNet downloads a detailed picture of a terrorist base.
47:15The orders from Navy command.
47:17Cruising close to the coastline and land a SEAL team to confirm the enemy is there.
47:22This is the type of mission the super sub was born to execute.
47:28The super sub carries a nine-man SEAL team,
47:32the Navy's elite sea, air, and land force.
47:43A special lock-in lock-out chamber allows the SEALs to exit the sub underwater in the dark of night.
47:52Unseen and unheard.
47:56Putting people ashore from a submarine is a difficult task
48:01because the other side is going to be looking for that submarine.
48:05They may have coastal radar, they may have aircraft,
48:08they may even have seafloor acoustic detection systems.
48:12The closer you bring the submarine in to five or ten miles,
48:16the greater the chance of detection,
48:18and the greater the chance the submarine is going to run aground on an uncharted sandbar,
48:24a coral reef, or something else.
48:32But delivering Navy SEALs to an enemy's doorstep in dangerously shallow water
48:38is just what this submarine does best.
48:41The SEAL team floats to the surface and heads for shore on inflatables.
48:46They work their way inland until they find the enemy.
48:50Surrounding his base and confirming its location.
48:55The hunt is over. Now it's time for the kill.
49:00The SEAL team relays the information back to the sub.
49:04It then sends the updated target information to FORCENET.
49:11Far out at sea, a warship sends a Tomahawk missile screaming toward the target.
49:22Once the missile's launched, the SEAL team is ready to go.
49:26The Tomahawk is the target.
49:32Once the missile's launched, the SEALs keep the terrorists pinned down until the Tomahawk arrives.
49:42The missile screams toward the target at 550 miles per hour.
49:49GPS satellites download the coordinates to the missile,
49:52and the Tomahawk locks in on the exact location of the target.
49:56If the target moves, the SEALs relay his new position to their sub.
50:01The sub relays it to FORCENET, and the warship re-aims the Tomahawk in mid-flight, ensuring a perfect strike.
50:22SEAL reports mission complete, en route to our location.
50:27One machine has made it possible. The Navy's newest breed of super-sub, the Virginia-class.
50:33Unprecedented endurance and stealth.
50:37Formidable firepower.
50:40And new capabilities to unleash a precision attack on any enemy, anywhere on Earth.
50:47But the super-sub has one final secret.
50:51The Navy has made her future-proof, thanks to an ingenious design.
50:56Years from now, when new technology or weapon systems come online,
51:01they can slice her in half, open her up, and update her design.
51:06The ultimate in plug-and-play.
51:11The USS Texas will have to make room for innovation.
51:14But unlike its predecessors, this super-sub is built for the future.
51:44For more UN videos visit www.un.org