New spy plane likes the water

[Wilfred]

New spy plane likes the water

 

Today's stealth planes may not show up on radar, but on a clear day you can still pretty much just look up in the sky and see them. Oops. Lockheed solves that problem with the Cormorant, a concept plane that won't show up in the sky because it's 150 feet underwater, at least for a large part of its mission. The Cormorant is designed to deploy from the missile tubes of Ohio-class submarines, which haven't really needed missiles since the Cold War ended. The idea is that the sub gets as close to the target as possible then releases the Cormorant, which floats to the surface, fires its rocket boosters and heads off on its mission. After it's done with whatever top-secret thing that needed doing, the Cormorant follows rendezvous coordinates from the sub and comes in for a splash landing, where a robotic underwater vehicle retrieves it. Then they all sneak off to the next mission.

 

 

[Geoff]

If it has no pilot its not a plane!