Advertisement
China can detect US Seawolf-class submarine with magnetic wake tracking: study
Stealth may soon be an impossible feat for submarines, after scientists found a way to detect even the quietest underwater vessels
2-MIN READ2-MIN
53
Stephen Chenin Beijing
For US submarines operating in waters near China, the era of absolute stealth may be ending – one magnetic ripple at a time.
Researchers with Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xian claim to have developed a groundbreaking method to detect even the quietest underwater vessels by harnessing the magnetic fields generated by their wakes – a discovery that could reshape naval warfare.
Led by associate professor Wang Honglei, the team modelled the Kelvin wake, a V-shaped surface disturbance created by submarines as they slice through water. This wake, previously studied for radar-based imagery detection, generates a faint but detectable magnetic field when seawater ions – disturbed by the vessel’s motion – interact with the Earth’s geomagnetic field.
Using numerical simulations, the researchers quantified how these magnetic signatures vary with a submarine’s speed, depth and size. For example, increasing speed by 2.5 metres per second (8.2 feet per second) boosts magnetic intensity tenfold; reducing depth by 20 metres (66 feet) doubles the field strength; and longer submarines produce weaker fields, while wider hulls amplify them.
Select Voice
Select Speed
1x
AI-generated voice