Submarine

The first expedition to the RMS Titanic in 14 years reveals the famous liner is deteriorating faster than expected.

France has launched the first of its six next-generation nuclear attack submarines in a ceremony in Cherbourg before a crowd of construction personnel and dignitaries. It is the first of the Barracuda class that will replace the French Navy's aging fleet of Rubis-class boats.

Omega Watches set the record for the deepest diving watches as three of its Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professional wrist watches strapped to a special manned submersible reached a depth of 10,928 m (35,853 ft) in the Mariana Trench earlier this year.

It’s entirely possible that micro-machines could one day be delivering drugs inside the body, with many designs proposed in recent years. The latest comes from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), which gets around under its own power using a system similar to how submarines rise and sink.

The DSV Limiting Factor submarine has just yo-yoed its way from the surface to the bottom of the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep point four times in eight days, breaking a ton of records and establishing itself as a reliable deep-sea elevator with unmatched exploration capabilities.

An innovative new method of drawing direct electrochemical energy from seawater means underwater robots, vehicles and detectors could go deeper and longer into the unknown.

​Phytoplankton aren't just evenly distributed throughout the ocean. Instead, they occur in three-dimensional concentrated patches. A new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is able to find and map those patches, potentially helping to preserve wildlife such as seabirds.

The US Navy has awarded Boeing a US$43 million contract to build four of its Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles. The 51-ft long unmanned submarines will operate autonomously in blue water with a range of 6,500 nm.

The Indian Navy has joined an exclusive maritime club after completing sea trials on the first of two 3rd Generation Submarine Rescue Systems being delivered by British-based JFD. The vessel set new dive records in the Indian Ocean during the trials.

At next week's Euronaval exhibition in Paris, Saab will be unveiling the latest version of its Lightweight Torpedo (SLWT). Already ordered by Sweden and Finland, the compact submarine hunter/killer weapon is designed to be launched from a variety of sea and air platforms.

If you like the water, don't mind cramped spaces, and have a spare US$48 million lying around, then Triton Submarines has a submersible called the Triton 36000/2 that can take you and a passenger to the bottom of the deepest ocean.

Wyss Institute's forays into soft robots have borne more ripe fruit in the shape of a soft robotic arm fit for use on submarines to handle delicate marine life like coral and jellyfish. This isn't the Harvard institute's first, but its latest iteration moves with "unprecedented dexterity."