Since the early 70s, all US Navy Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines (SSBN’s) have been equipped with a device affectionately called a “Beast buoy”… or AN/BST-1A. Theres actually two on each boat; one forward on the port side by the sail and one aft on the starboard side. In the event a boat sinks, either by mishap or attack (depending on which mode is set), these devices automatically launch from the boat when the internal timer winds down (in the event the crew is incapacitated) where they then float to the surface and begin transmitting a signal that is picked up by satellite thereby alerting the fleet. The fleet can then accurately calculate the approximate location (accounting for sea conditions, set and drift, etc.) of the boat and go from there. Its a completely fail-safe system in that no human action is required to initiate a launch. The only human interaction with the system is changing the mode (from normal during normal operations to attack when manning battle stations missile or torpedo and then back to normal) and rewinding the internal countdown timer every x amount of time. Why aren’t commercial aircraft equipped with a similar system? I mean, it would completely eliminate the challenges in pinpointing the location of aircraft wreckage underwater as well as the challenges in locating the FDR and CVR (black boxes). Crash… ping… BAM – location known! Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 still hasn’t been located in the Indian Ocean and it took two years to locate the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean… and now AirAsia Flight 8501. In a big blue deep ocean, knowing an approximate location, even if it’s several square miles, is a helluva lot better than having no freakin clue in hundreds or thousands of square miles.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 17:05:09 +0000
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