U.S. Navy Eyes Technology To Cloak Subs

The U.S. Navy is investing in research that could make its submarines even stealthier, using cloaking technology that seems to come straight out of a Tom Clancy thriller or Star Trek script.

Developed by New York-based Weidlinger Associates with U.S. Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding, the technology involves the carving up and altering of aluminum to give it “elastic properties” — a form of what the company calls “metal water,” according to Jeffrey Cipolla, a Weidlinger senior associate.

The underwater acoustic-evading technology for submarines and unmanned undersea vehicles, now in SBIR Phase II development, creates a coating that features broadband, passive waveguides, which redirect acoustic energy around an object, “rendering it nearly undetectable” to active sonar, the company says.

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