"DRAPES will apparently use a new underwater communications system to transmit the acoustic data it collects to the three remaining Navy Operational Processing Facilities (NOPFs). These facilities combine data from the static SOSUS networks and SURTASS ships to provide “detection, localization, and tracking of submarines.” DRAPES’ ability to provide wide coverage from a fixed location in the ocean, apparently without the need for additional NOPF facility footprints, would be a substantial improvement over the old SOSUS network."
I'm still waiting to see how someone solves the long-range, reliable, high-speed, underwater "wi-fi" communications issue. Seems like the physics of underwater sound makes this a hard nut to crack.
"Water poses a problem for wireless communications because it interferes with radio waves. As a result, underwater communication systems used by the Navy, researchers or industry have often relied on sound waves, such as those used by the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or very low-frequencies with low data rates, such the frequencies between 3 and 30 kilohertz used in submarine communications.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to change that, issuing a solicitation looking for the latest breakthroughs in underwater communications. In essence, DARPA is hoping to develop an underwater Internet that would allow submerged manned and unmanned systems to operate together just like they do on the surface and in the air—and communicate with airborne systems as well."
