For now, this information should be taken with a grain of salt because it was first reported by a Chinese publication controlled by the country’s communist government. The material claims that engineers from Harbin Engineering University in Heilongjiang province are working on new laser engines. China’s first experimental submarine was previously developed there.

How does it work

The idea behind this technology is that lasers produce plasma underwater, which then creates a “blast wave” that propels the submarine forward.

As SCMP notes, Japanese researchers first proposed such a laser propulsion method 20 years ago, and now scientists in China are trying to figure out how to implement it. And they’ve been doing this for at least a decade.

Efforts to apply laser propulsion have so far been fruitless, as scientists have found that it is nearly impossible to create a force that would push submarines in a particular direction.

But now Chinese researchers say they believe they have solved this mystery. Submarines using this technology will be coated with thin optical fibers, each thinner than a human hair, that emit laser energy, engineers say in a recent article published in the Chinese journal Acta Optica Sinica.

The directed laser energy will not only propel the submarine forward, but will also cause “supercavitation,” which occurs when bubbles cover the surface of the underwater projectile and increase its speed. In theory, this could enable the engine to go faster than the speed of sound.

Also technology It will hide boats from sonar as it does not create any mechanical noise emissions without mechanical energy.

This method can also be applied to underwater weapons. This would make it possible to apply the supercavitation phenomenon to, for example, torpedoes, thereby significantly increasing the underwater range of the projectiles.