British Invention May Nullify Submarines

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29179, 13 April 1960, Page 17

British Invention May Nullify Submarines

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, April 12. British scientists were on the point of developing an “underwater eye” which could seek out submarines under water well over 1000 miles away, according to the “Daily Mail.” Development of the system would mean that even the latest nuclear-powered submarine armed with long-range ballistic missiles could be made as outdated as the war-time U-boat. The system was not a radar development, but a completely new technique, said the “Daily Mail.”

Admiralty scientists had been working on it at full pressure since the end of the war, and a “crash” development programme had now been ordered. The system nullified the greatest advantage of the nuclear submarine—its ability to slip undetected from base, cruise unseen for weeks under water and fire its missiles unhindered from below the surface.

The “underwater eye" was expected to be able to track submarines from the moment they left base—whether they were nuclear or conventionally-power-ed.

“Killer” submarines would thus be able to hunt out their enemies in any waters and destroy them with self-homing torpedoes, which could now be fired at great depths without loss of accuracy. The “Daily Mail” said it understood the system could be carried by surface vessels or submarines. It could also be “laid” in the water frpm aircraft. This appeared to suggest that robot submarine detection stations could be distributed throughout the world. They would constantly report submarine movements. “If the great hopes held for the British system are justified. Soviet potency at sea may have been cancelled out,” said the newspaper, adding that the Russians were known to have a giant fleet of

submarines. The “Daily Mail” said that development of the “underwater eye" was one of the factors which had influenced American reappraisal of its huge nuclearsubmarine building programme. It had also influenced the relegation of the missile-carrying submarine to third choice as Britain’s next-generation weapon.