DARPA develops silent propulsion for submarine similar to that of the Red October

DARPA, the Pentagon's innovation agency, is developing a silent magnetohydrodynamic propulsion for submarines comparable to that central to the plot of Tom Clancy's "Chasing Red October" novel.

At the end of 1984, a short story published by the Naval Institute Press by a then little-known American author began to meet with great success not only with traditional readers of military news, but with the general public.

5 million copies later, "In Pursuit of Red October" had become a worldwide success, propelling Tom Clancy to center stage and even creating a new literary style, the techno-thriller. This success was largely based on the precision of the book, and in particular on its descriptions of the universe of modern submarine warfare, until then relatively obscure for the general public.

The novel describes the escape of a Soviet submarine captain and part of his crew to the United States, taking with him the latest nuclear ballistic missile submarine of the Soviet fleet, the Red October, a ship derived from the class Typhoon. Above all, the ship carries a new magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system called the caterpillar, making it virtually undetectable by American sonars from the SOSUS line but also from those of US Navy submarines and frigates.

If the Red October never existed, this technology, responding to the acronym MHD, has been the subject of significant research since the 60s, in the United States and in the Soviet Union, precisely with the aim to provide ships and submarines with propulsion without moving parts, and therefore much more discreet.

75% of this article remains to read,
Subscribe to access it!

The Classic subscriptions provide access to
articles in their full version, and without advertising,
from 6,90 €.

Newsletter subscription