The Hunt For Red October is one of my favourite films. It has everything. A distinguished looking Sean Connery (with a perfect toupee), as Capt. Mark Ramius, Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, Sam Neil as Capt. Borodin, not to mention James Earl Jones and Scott Glenn.All fantastic actors, in a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire way — even though I've lost count of how many times I've seen it."One ping, Vasily, one ping only." Anyone who has seen the film, knows exactly what that means.There was also something really cool about it — the Soviet submarine had a special, ground-breaking technology.It was called the caterpillar drive, short for the magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD accelerator, a method for propelling vehicles using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts.It would allow the Red October, to sit off the US coast, silent and unseen, waiting to unleash its nuclear weapons in a devastating first strike — something that Capt. Ramius wanted no part of.Thus the effort to defect to the US, which sparks a thrilling chase.Says Ramius, to one of the mutinous officers, "Anatoly ... you're afraid of our fleet. Well, you should be. Personally, I'd give us one chance in three. More tea anyone?"Thus my surprise when I learned this week that the "caterpillar" actually exists..According to media reports, the US Navy has fitted an MHD caterpillar drive to a Virginia-class submarine.A development that promises to make the submarine virtually undetectable — the holy grail of naval warfare.The latter is being developed under the PUMP program by DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency).Water passing through it is accelerated by means of a magnetic field using superconducting magnets. This is often likened to the way a caterpillar crawls leading to the colloquial term caterpillar drive.While much of the program is classified, the first boat to be fitted with the new propulsion will be the USS Montana (SSN 794).This Virginia-class attack submarine was commissioned into the US Navy in June 2022. Although still a new boat, she has been brought in to Groton, CT for the modifications.According to Naval News, it is likely to be particularly stealthy as there are no moving mechanical parts.This will make the submarine hard to detect using passive sonar which listens for noises emitted by the targeted submarine, the report said.Sonar operators searching for the USS Montana will likely hear noises which are indistinguishable from natural phenomenon, such as seismic activity.Instead of a traditional propeller at the stern, the new propulsion will be entirely within the submarine’s hull. According to British experts, the only external clues are likely to be the water intake doors in the bow — similar to what was theorized in the movie.These will resemble torpedo tube shutters but larger, approximately the diameter of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. But mounted horizontally, which is unusual for those missiles, the report said.Unlike the movie, it is unlikely to be fitted to the Columbia Class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), as this would likely constitute a first strike capability.There is no reason to make a nuclear deterrent submarine so stealthy if it is only intended for retaliatory strikes. At least not yet.USS Montana is expected to undergo sea trials on the Penobscot River in Maine, the report said.And you can bet the Russians will be watching.
