• ButtDrugs@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    Its better performance than existing non-gps systems - not better than GPS. For ships , being within 1nm after thousands of miles of travel is really well performing. Obvious the real play here is weaponry though, since GPS isnt reliable in warfare and on-board sensors can do the detail work of target identification once in an area, the hard part is a way for them to self navigate accurately over long distances without GPS.

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      The realer play is submarines. You don’t get any satellite signal at all underwater. Before this it was only INS or dead reckoning.

      • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Im pretty sure there were underwater beacons they used for aiding their navigation. Active or passive, man made or natural phenomena…

      • CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I suspect submarines can also use bottom facing radar to track features on the sea floor. But tracking the gravity should be even better.

        • frongt@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          Radar is radio, just like most satellites. It doesn’t do well through water. And that would require emissions, which submarines like to avoid.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            I’m guessing they meant sonar instead. AFAIK active sonar does work really well, but is rarely used since it reveals your location twice as far as you’re able to detect others. Not to mention the horrible effects on wildlife - the sound waves carry so much energy that a point-blank hit is somewhere between “lethal & untreatable” and “turned into red mist”.