Speculative Fact #179: Super Fast Submarines

Ever move a stick through water? Though the water impedes the passage of the stick, if you put a little muscle into it you can make the stick move pretty fast. Look in the water while you’re doing that and you’ll see a pocket of air open up behind the stick. The phenomenon, known as super-cavitation, can allow future ships and submarines to travel at unthinkable speeds. While the Soviets and the U.S. experimented with supercavitating weapons like torpedoes no (known) supercavitating vessels exist. What if future naval battles were less like “Battleship” and more like a Mach 2 dogfight on (or under) the water?

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