Russian submarine designers are building submarines out of concrete. Because concrete becomes stronger under high pressure, they could settle down to the bottom in very deep water, and concrete would not show up on sonar displays...
Well now...aren't we all slightly dumber this morning just from having read that...I know I feel like I just failed kindergarten for coloring outside the lines...holy crap...yes new technologies have developed higher strength concrete products...however they have the same NON-floating characteristics as those of previous generations...and concrete of any kind is porous...full of little pockets of air...even high strength concrete such as that used on our roads...comes apart pretty easy with a jackhammer and that shit is usually 4" thick...so you can imagine the 80' thick concrete walls one would need to build a submarine...would they settle to the bottom in very deep water??? Yes they would...and without the use of a motor...which should help avoid detection...as for these subs not showing up on sonar...well sonar equipment performs many different functions depending on how it is designed and used...it serves an echo location device similar to that of dolphins...in which the originating source transmits a signal...Single Ping...this sound wave emits in 360 degree fashion...it bounces off all metallic objects in the area and reflects a measurement of distance back to the source...some sonar units take depth readings to map the floor of the ocean below and anything on it...organic or otherwise...kinda like your Cabela's Fish Finder...I mean how ridiculous...trying to build a submersible out of a porous material...what are you going to do...cover it with Thompson's Water Seal...dipshidiot...let's see...man crawls from cave...man enters the Stone Age...man discovers that stone like substances sink rather than floats...man build boat out of wood...man progress through ages upon ages...man use stone for building...man use stone for weapons and ammo...man still prefer wood for watercraft over sinkable stone...man enter modern age...man build bigger boats out of metal...man still not build watercraft out of heavy porous material in the stone category...and then what...the Russians figured it all out...the day someone builds an armada of submarines out of concrete will be the day I show you how to find sunken boats close to shore...look at modern concrete technology...ROAD BUILDING...SKYSCRAPER CONSTRUCTION...what do all of these methods employ??? Expansion joints in their finished products...that's what...because concrete like so many other man-made products of this nature flexes...it expands and contracts with changes in weather...hell a 3" thick side walk will buckle from the mere presence of frost beneath the surface...drastically less pressure than one would feel at a depth of even 20' underwater...so even if you could build a submarine out of concrete it would have to be so massive sonar would be the least of your worries...sound from the massive mechanical propulsion system would give you away long before a beep on the sonar screen was even called for...you then have the logistical nightmares of maneuverability...something that enormous is a straight line transport...it would take damn near the whole ocean just to turn it around...fitted with expansion joints that line the body of the beast like yard lines on a football field...you would need a Russian bail out bucket brigade working around the clock in overlapping shifts just to keep the damn thing buoyant...but then again what do I know...Russia may have mastered building fighter jets outta Saran wrap...you know that light weight material with radar evading capabilities...but I'm guessin that since our own US Navy Fleet uses asphalt on the flight decks of aircraft carriers because it is more flexible and less likely to buckle under the abusive forces of the sea than concrete...that the Russians aren't getting very far in their efforts...and to be completely honest...who cares if they are successful...Russia really hasn't been a threat since fracturing and falling apart...their position at the World Table of Dominance has been occupied by China...hell North Korea and Iran are a bigger global threat than that cub-less Mother Bear and her Vodka swillin socialites...not too mention the effects of salt water on everything it touches...concrete would be subjected to rapid deterioration at the molecular level...which would be multiplied and magnified when coupled with the drastic changes in atmospheric pressure from diving and rising...I did actually Google this and as ridiculous as it sounds there have been studies conducted to manufacture these very things...which means that they have already wasted money on a bad design plan...I've never understood man's inability to figure things out by looking at nature...I mean I am by no means the all knowing authority on construction vessels for underwater exploration and exploitation...but I have watched numerous programs on the Discovery Channel where people with assloads of money develop these tiny one to two man submersibles that allow them to dive to some of the deepest depths of the world's oceans and they always make these things out of crushable metal...yet when they get down to those depths never before reached by human kind...what do they see??? Aquatic lifeforms that are able to withstand enormous amounts of atmospheric pressure...and what are these creatures made out of...gelatinous flexible body parts...shit that bends and flexes...and yet NOTTA single light bulb goes off in any of their little pea brains...I mean hell...I'd have more respect for ya if ya invested money studying the making submersibles out of latex or rubber...get the guys at Goodyear and Trojan to work together on the project rather than calling Kirk the Concrete Contractor...at least then we could rest assured that a tragic situation at sea wouldn't result in 'seamen' staining the sea bed!!!
