Aluminum Batteries Could Let Submarine Drones Range Farther

Staff, The Economist
9 March 2017 

Much is made of the potential of flying drones. But drones are useful at sea, too. Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), as they are known technically, are employed for things ranging from prospecting for oil and gas to naval warfare. Like their aerial cousins, though, ocean-going drones have limited ranges—limits that are often imposed by their batteries.
At the moment those batteries are usually either alkaline or lead-acid. Lithium-ion batteries, fashionable elsewhere, have not conquered the UUV world. Their tendency to catch fire counts against them. And they are sensitive to pressure, which is undesirable in devices that operate underwater. But a firm in Massachusetts, called Open Water Power (OWP), is offering an alternative: batteries based on aluminum. With these, its engineers hope to extend the ranges of underwater drones tenfold.
Each of OWP’s battery cells has a block of aluminum as its anode. The cell’s cathode is made of nickel. In a working battery, these anodes and cathodes alternate, and are bathed in an electrolyte made of seawater with some potassium hydroxide dissolved in it. This chemical keeps the battery free from marine organisms that might otherwise grow within it. It also plays two other roles. These are in the battery’s chemical operation.
One of these roles lies in the reaction that drives the battery, between the aluminum of the anode and the hydroxide ions in the electrolyte. A hydroxide ion is a negatively charged combination of a single hydrogen atom and a single oxygen atom (OH- in chemical shorthand). Unadulterated water contains some hydroxide ions (its molecules, H2O, sometimes disintegrate spontaneously into OH- and positively charged hydrogen ions, H+) but adding potassium hydroxide boosts their number.
The result of the reaction is aluminum hydroxide, which is electrically neutral, and electrons, which carry away the hydroxide ion’s negative charge. These electrons then travel towards the cathode via a circuit that can, for example, power a motor. To complete the circuit, electrons at the cathode combine with hydrogen ions from the electrolyte’s water to produce hydrogen gas, which is vented from the battery, leaving those ions’ hydroxide partners behind to replenish the store of OH-.
Previous attempts to make a commercial aluminum battery have failed because their anodes have got clogged up with aluminum hydroxide, which is insoluble in water. This is where the added potassium hydroxide does its third job, for an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide will dissolve aluminum hydroxide in a way that pure water cannot.
A pump circulates the potassium-hydroxide-bearing electrolyte through the battery, where it picks up aluminum hydroxide from the anodes. The resulting solution then passes through a chamber filled with a plug made of foam rubber. This is a material that packs an enormous amount of surface area into a tiny volume and whose chemistry encourages the aluminum hydroxide to precipitate on that surface. A small piece of foam rubber can thus hold a lot of aluminum hydroxide. When a plug is saturated with the stuff the battery ejects it and replaces it with a fresh one that has been kept, compressed, in an adjacent plug store. Each battery carries enough plugs to keep it going until its supply of aluminum has run out.
One test of OWP’s technology will come this summer, when the firm will fit its batteries into UUVs built by Riptide Autonomous Solutions, which is also in Massachusetts. Riptide’s products are used by oil and gas companies to undertake underwater surveys. At the moment, they have a range of about 100 nautical miles (185km). Riptide reckons that OWP’s batteries could increase that to 1,000 nautical miles.
The armed forces are interested, too. Though OWP is coy about the details, records in the public domain show that OWP is working with America’s navy and also with the country’s Special Operations Command, which carries out clandestine missions. The navy contract asks for something to replace the existing batteries on its Shallow Water Surveillance System, a series of acoustic sensors designed to detect enemy submarines. The Special Operations contract is light on detail, but is for “man-portable UUVs”.
One other use for aluminum batteries might be to power crewed deep-diving submersibles such as Alvin, which found fame in 1986 when it was used to explore the wreck of Titanic, a British liner sunk by an iceberg in 1912. At the moment Alvin still relies on lead-acid batteries. This limits its dives to eight hours and means it cannot go as far down into the ocean as its titanium shell would otherwise permit. Aluminum batteries would let it and its kind dive longer and deeper, letting researchers visit the abyss more easily in person.
Correction: This article has been corrected. A previous version misnamed Riptide Autonomous Solutions, and gave the wrong actual and hoped-for ranges for its UUVs.

Why A $1 Trillion Endeavor To Modernize The US Nuclear Arsenal Could Get More Bipartisan Support

Jeff Daniels, CNBC
7 March 2017

President Donald Trump has made modernizing the nation's nuclear arsenal a top priority. Now, after years of being put on the sidelines, threats from abroad and congressional hearings scheduled for Wednesday could further highlight the need to update the country's weapons technology.
"Essentially, after the Cold War we took a vacation from modernizing the nuclear deterrent," said Michaela Dodge, a policy analyst specializing in nuclear weapons policy at Heritage Foundation's Center for National Defense.
A week after taking office, Trump instructed Secretary of Defense James Mattis to initiate a new Nuclear Posture Review, focusing on current and future needs and whether it is "appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies." The last such review was issued in 2010 and concluded "Russia and the United States are no longer adversaries" and also discussed "the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran."
Experts say the threat from North Korea has increased dramatically since 2010 with the rogue nation testing ballistic missile technology capable of carrying nuclear warheads. On Monday, North Korea fired several missiles, each believed to be capable of reaching U.S. military bases in Japan.
The U.S. military started deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (or THAAD) system this week in South Korea in response to missile threats from North Korea. THAAD, which is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is designed to intercept ballistic missiles and previously was deployed at U.S. bases in Guam and Hawaii, among others.
China has warned of "consequences" of THAAD deployment, which the U.S. military insists is for defensive purposes only.
"North Korea's accelerating program of nuclear weapons tests and ballistic missile launches constitute a threat to international peace and security, and are in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," the U.S. Pacific Command said in a release announcing the THAAD deployment.
On Wednesday, the full House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold a panel, "Military Assessment of Nuclear Deterrence Requirements" with key military leaders scheduled to testify. The state of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, as well as nuclear threats from abroad, are expected to be major areas of discussion. A Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces also is set to meet in the afternoon Wednesday to discuss the "Global Nuclear Weapons Environment."
"Nuclear is sort of something that people brush over because it is scary and generally they are considered weapons that will only be used in the worst-case scenario," said Lydia Dennett, a nuclear policy specialist with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan independent watchdog. "But if the U.S. is planning to spend $1 trillion over the next 30 years, those plans should be looked at very carefully."
The $1 trillion estimate to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal includes warheads themselves and the delivery systems, Dennett said. But an Air Force spokesman, Capt. Mark Graff, told CNBC a more precise figure the government is using for the nuclear recapitalization (or modernization) is about $270 billion over more than 20 years.
Prior to becoming Defense secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. Mattis expressed concern about the Air Force's ground-based Minuteman III, one leg of the nation's nuclear triad (strategic bombers, submarine-launched missiles, and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs.)
There's already funding for development of a new stealth bomber manufactured by Northrop Grumman that modernizes the current B-1, B-2 and B-52 force. The government is also funding development of the Columbia-class nuclear missile submarine, which replaces the Trident missile-armed Ohio-class submarine program.
But one major nuclear program that has yet to be decided is the so-called Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, which would replace the aging Minuteman III weapon built by Boeing with a next-generation, land-based missile technology. The Air Force released its requests for proposal last summer and participants include several of the major defense prime contractors. The first contract award could be announced as early as the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, according to an Air Force spokesman.
Mattis now is tasked with helping to modernize the U.S. armed forces and initiate the Nuclear Posture Review, which could be issued later this year. Trump's presidential memorandum also calls on the Defense secretary to "identify ways of strengthening missile-defense capabilities, rebalancing homeland and theater defense priorities, and highlighting priority funding areas."
Missile defense and modernization of the nuclear triad are areas that could get bipartisan support in the Congress, particularly given the geopolitical tensions.
"You're going to see bipartisan support for defense in general," said Richard Safran, a defense analyst at Buckingham Research in New York. The industry analyst also sees more demand internationally for missile defense technology, including THAAD, as well as Raytheon's Patriot system.
"We have a lot of equipment that's out of date. I think you're going to see increased funding for that," he said.
The U.S. military is still using dated technology such as 8-inch floppy disks at some of its nuclear launch control areas, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
"The nuclear threat environment is dynamic and proliferating, with old and new actors developing advanced capabilities while the U.S. enterprise is relatively static, potentially leaving the United States at a technological disadvantage," according to the 2016 "Index of U.S. Military Strength" report issued by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank.
The report noted that the U.S. nuclear triad uses aging technology that is dated, including Minuteman III missiles that are about 40 years old, Trident II missiles that are around 20 years old, as well as a fleet of B-52H bombers that are nearly 50 years old.
Indeed, components of some of the nuclear weapons are in some cases "timing out," according to Dodge, the Heritage analyst. "So what we do is try to remanufacture the components and of course the issue with that is that we are no longer testing or conducting field producing experiments."
Dodge said sometimes "very small differences" can impact the reliability of nuclear warheads so ultimately "our kind of margin of uncertainty increases. That might be problematic."
Heritage also found there's been a brain drain of sorts within the ranks of the U.S. military's nuclear weapon expertise. Experienced nuclear scientists and engineers are retiring from government laboratories and leaving behind knowledge of some of the older nuclear technology that serves as legs of the nuclear triad.
"It's probably true that the labs do have challenges in keeping the best people," said James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. "But I don't think that's exclusively a U.S. problem. Neither do I think it's an insurmountable problem either."
Despite the age of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, Acton said evidence suggests it's still more accurate than the Russian arsenal. Moreover, he contends that more of the U.S. nuclear arsenal would survive than the Russian arsenal if the U.S. attacked the Russians first.
However, the Carnegie nuclear policy expert said with all the proposed spending on large-scale modernization across the nuclear triad there's still need to "prioritize" spending.
In particular, he said more focus should be placed on command and control systems, including satellite and other communication systems with nuclear forces as well as how the military gets early warnings of an incoming strike.
Acton estimates approximately $100 billion in savings alone could be achieved from the nuclear weapons modernization program. He calls the Minuteman ICBMs, or the land-based missiles in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, probably the "least useful leg of the triad."
"I wouldn't rip those weapons out of the ground tomorrow. But I would suggest taking a new look at whether the life of those systems could be extended," he said.
Additionally, the Carnegie analyst said the U.S. military should decide between updating the nuclear gravity bomb or a new nuclear-armed cruise missile. "I believe it's unnecessary to do both of those," he said.
Both the updated B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb and new cruise missile are designed to be dropped from airplanes. Northrop Grumman's B-2 bomber and General Dynamics' F-16 fighter jet are expected to be outfitted with the gravity bombs, and eventually, the newer B-21 stealth bomber being developed by Northrop.
The B61-12 — part of the military's so-called warhead life extension program — is a guided weapon expected to cost upwards of $12 billion and include a tail kit made by Boeing that will make it more accurate and able to guide toward targets more effectively.

Russia To Arm Antey Nuclear Subs With Kalibr Missiles

Ryan Maass, UPI
7 March 2017 

Russian Project 949A Antey submarines will be armed with Kalibr missile systems following an upgrade project, according to state media reports.
The vessels, also known by their NATO reporting names Oscar I and Oscar II, are currently armed with P-700 Granit cruise missiles in addition to various anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons. The Kremlin's plans to improve the Soviet-era ships were announced by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov.
"The Zvezda shipyard is carrying out profound modernization of Project 949A nuclear submarines, including the replacement of armament with the Kalibr missile complex and also the replacement of navigation, life support and other systems," the minister told the TASS news agency.
Moscow has so far constructed 11 Project 949A Antey submarines, 8 of which have remained operational with the country's navy. Each vessel displaces 24,000 tons at sea.
Russia's Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering CEO Igor Vilnit adds all Project 949A Antey submarines will receive the upgrade.

Navy Officers Get Higher Nuclear Bonus to Remain in Service

Staff, Military.com
7 March 2017

The Navy is increasing the annual Nuclear Officer Incentive Continuation Pay for some of its nuclear-qualified officers from $30,000 to $35,000.
Nuclear Officer Incentive Continuation Pay (COPAY) is a sum of money paid in annual installments to nuclear-qualified officers who agree to remain on active duty an additional set period beyond their existing service obligation. Normally, nuclear officers must agree to serve an additional 3,4, 5, 6, or 7 years to qualify for this continuation pay.
COPAY is paid each year for the length of a contract. Eligible officers serving on an existing COPAY agreement may re-negotiate a 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 year contract with a period that extends to, or beyond, an existing agreement to receive this new amount.
Previously only 1110 or 1120 officers serving in designated submarine nuclear propulsion billets could receive the $35,000 bonus. The new, higher bonus is available for all unrestricted line submarine officers O-6 or below with less than 24 years of service. The change is effective immediately.
Nuclear officers are also eligible for an accession bonus when first accepted into nuclear training, a career bonus upon successful completion of training. They may also receive an Annual Incentive Bonus after completing a minimum service qualification and while not receiving certain other special pays.

Timeline For Induction of Scorpene Submarine Drawn Up by India

Staff, Bangalore Mirror
5 March 2017 

Leaving behind the data leak episode, the Indian Navy has finally drawn up a timeline for induction of the six French-designed Scorpene submarines and the first two vessels are expected to be commissioned by end of the year. 
Top Navy sources said the Kalvari, the first of the highly-advanced submarines, is set for induction by middle of this year as the complex process of integrating it with missiles and weapons system was nearing completion. 
The submarines are being built at the Mazagon Dock Ltd in Mumbai with technology from French defence major DCNS under a project called P-75 at a cost of around USD 3.5 billion. 
As per the plan, the second submarine Khanderi will be inducted into the Navy fleet by end of 2017 and thereafter each vessel will be commissioned at an interval of nine months. 
The submarines are expected to significantly boost India's naval prowess when China was fast expanding its maritime presence in the Indian Ocean. 
In August, over 22,000 pages of top secret data on the capabilities of the submarines were leaked with an Australian newspaper putting the details on its website, triggering apprehensions that the leak may compromise the stealth capabilities of the vessels. 
Navy sources, then, had said the document was dated and the Indian submarine had undergone "many changes" from the initial design, the details of which have been leaked. 
The Project 75 has been hit by delays as the multi-billion dollar project was signed by the defence ministry with French firm DCNS in October 2005. 
The first four submarines will be conventional while the last two are to be equipped with the Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system, which will enable the vessel to stay underwater for longer duration. 
All the six diesel-electric attack submarines will be equipped with the anti-ship missile, which has a proven record in combat, besides other weapon systems. 
The navy on Thursday had successfully test-fired an anti-ship missile from the Kalvari. 
Construction of the first submarine had started on May 23, 2009 and the project is running four years behind schedule.

U.S. Navy Subs Still Show Issue With Stealth Coating

The coating continues to peel off the hulls.

William Cole, Honolulu Advertiser
5 March 2017

In 2010, when rubberlike quieting material started to peel off the hulls of newer Virginia-class submarines, the Navy said it was fine-tuning a fix for a problem occurring on the first few ships made.
Seven years later, the Navy still appears to be seeking a cure.
When the $2 billion USS Mississippi recently returned to Pearl Harbor, its "Mold-In-Place/Special Hull Treatment" looked ragged and was missing chunks on at least one side of the hull. The sub was commissioned in 2012.
The loss of stealth comes at a time when China and Russia are making worrisome advances in submarine technology.
A photo that appeared on Facebook prompted the comment that the Mississippi looked "pretty banged up." No collision, no accident, and no hull damage, reported the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force at Pearl Harbor.
The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington skirted questions about what happened to the Mississippi and how much of a problem the debonding remains for Virginia-class attack boats.
Asked what caused the damage, the command in an email cited the "wear and tear from the harsh environment in which the submarine operates," but would not say when or why it occurred.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser also asked how much of a problem debonding remains across the Virginia-class fleet, given past problems with the hull treatment that is applied in sections.
"Navy and industry continue to find efficiencies and improvements in the construction and maintenance of Virginia-class submarines," the command said in the emailed response. "An integrated process team was assembled to address conditions such as those reflected in the (USS Mississippi) photograph, and improvements to materials, processes and testing were subsequently identified, evaluated and implemented. The Navy is continually assessing and developing more effective solutions."
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and a former Navy submariner, said the amount of acoustic coating missing on the Mississippi "could create enough flow noise to be a sound problem at even relatively slow speeds. Also, there is enough tile missing that it could reduce the coating's ability to absorb sonar energy and make the submarine easier to find with active sonar."
Clark said it isn't clear from the photo if the tiles came off due to debonding, meaning a loss of adhesion, "or if they got stripped off from something rubbing against the submarine. Nets and cables adrift at sea can do this."
Cmdr. Corey Barker, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force, said that in terms of possible abrasion, he was "not aware of anything of that nature" happening.
The 377-foot attack submarine returned to Pearl Harbor on Feb. 13 after being in and out of port for routine training, Barker said. On Sept. 1, the Mississippi came home after a six-month deployment to the Western Pacific.
A Navy photo taken June 13 during a port stop in Busan, South Korea, shows the same side of the sub missing a few coating pieces, but not anywhere close to the degree of loss exhibited last month.
Asked if the debonding occurred during the deployment, the Naval Sea Systems Command said, "As a matter of (Defense Department) policy, we do not discuss the specifics of submarine operations."
Anechoic, or echo-reducing, tiles were used by Nazi Germany in World War II. The application helps break up incoming sound waves and reduces the sound that travels back from sonar. The Soviets adopted the use of the coating, and the U.S. Navy followed in 1988.
The USS Hawaii, Texas and North Carolina, all now based at Pearl Harbor and among the first Virginia subs to be built, were part of a group of about six of the vessels identified in 2010 as having a problem with the mold-in-place urethane coating.
"We've been made aware of the issues, we're making improvements in the process, and we're seeing results already," the Associated Press quoted Alan Baribeau, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman, saying at the time.
The website Next Navy posted photos from 2013, however, showing the submarines Minnesota and Missouri with some coating coming off. The Navy has been replacing older Los Angeles-class subs at Pearl Harbor with the more capable Virginia-class. Four Virginia subs are based in Hawaii now. The USS Illinois is expected to be relocated to Oahu.
Naval analyst and author Norman Polmar, who served as a consultant to three secretaries of the Navy, said it's a glue issue with the acoustic material.
"Remember, (the coating sheets) are external to a submarine, which is going from surface pressure down to, let's say, 1,000 feet occasionally," Polmar said. "In addition, the temperature changes radically."
The glue has to "take the constant changes in pressure, constant changes in temperature, and it ain't an easy thing to do," he said. Additionally, submarines periodically brush against floating debris, against a pier, or "rarely, but sometimes, against another submarine."
The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard said in 2015 that it was working on special hull treatment restoration on the USS Hawaii. Naval Sea Systems Command did not disclose when the Mississippi will receive repairs or the estimated cost.
Clark, with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the Navy always has had difficulty keeping
anechoic coatings on submarine hulls. Since the sound energy from sonar hits the whole submarine, a few missing tiles will not significantly affect the return, he said.
But he said the Navy will have to continue to improve the acoustic coating's resilience with other countries starting to use more active variable-depth sonars on ships and helicopters that can be positioned to more effectively look for submarines.
The Russians have made significant strides in acoustic technology on the Severodvinsk-class submarines, and the U.S. Navy's Acoustic Superiority Program is an attempt to stay ahead of the pack. The sub USS South Dakota, expected to be christened this summer, is being used as a test for an improved acoustic coating and noise-reducing machinery.
General Dynamics Electric Boat in 2012 said it was delivering the Mississippi to the Navy a year ahead of contract schedule and more than $60 million below target cost. The USS Mississippi Commissioning Committee reported the sub's cost at $2 billion.
A 2016 Congressional Research Service report said the procurement cost of two Virginia-class subs in fiscal 2017 was $2.7 billion each.
That same year, Rear Adm. Charles Richard, director of undersea warfare, and Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley, program executive officer for submarines, told members of Congress that the need for submarines is only growing.
"As the threat from adversary advances in sensors and weapons such as cruise missiles, anti-ship ballistic missiles and integrated air defense systems grows," the pair said in written testimony, "undersea forces will be increasingly asked to accomplish missions once conducted by forces that are now held at increased and potentially unacceptable risk by the improved range, precision, and lethality of advanced systems."

30 Years Old Russian Sub With 64 Nuclear Warheads Ready For Re-Launch

Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer
7 March 2017

"Tula" is a Delta-IV class submarine carrying 16 ballistic missiles, each armed with four nuclear warheads. In total, the sub has a lethal load of 64 nuclear warheads.
First launched in 1987, the 30 years old submarine has been in for modernization at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk since December 2014. 
Before the end of this year, "Tula" will again be ready to sail for the Northern fleet for many years to come. The Russian navy has six Delta-IV nuclear powered submarines, all based in Gadzhievo northwest of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula.
Russia’s ballistic missile submarines normally patrol the northeastern part of the Barents Sea and represents an important leg in Russia’s nuclear deterrence. 
Next Delta-IV submarine in line for upgrades after «Tula» now is taken out of the ship hall is "Bryansk", the shipyard’s portal reports. 
This is likely the last round of overhaul of the Delta-IV fleet. The class will be replaced with the newer 4th generation Borei-class submarines, of which the three first are already in operation, two with the Pacific fleet and one with the Northern fleet. 
With eight Borei submarines, the number of strategic warheads will be a maximum of 888; three with 16 missiles and five with 20 missiles. In practice, not all Borei’s will be deployed at the same time due to maintenance and repair work. Also, some of the missiles are likely to carry dummy warheads for test-launchings. 
In the period when both the current fleet of Delta-IV subs and the upcoming Borei-class subs will sail together, the numbers of nuclear warheads in the Barents Sea will be substantially higher than today, as reported by the Barents Observer last week.