Imagine a day when a submarine could blast a target to smithereens using nothing more than acoustic energy. That's the idea behind a recently granted U.S. Navy patent for a cavitation weapon. The powerful weapon would use sonar to generate "acoustic remote cavitation," i.e. a big pressure bubble, that would destroy everything from torpedoes to mines. As the patent describes:
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A method is disclosed of generating a predetermined field of cavitation around a remote target in an underwater environment. The method includes the steps of identifying a remote target location, generating at least two acoustic beams, each at a high power output, from an underwater acoustic source, and controlling the generated acoustic beams to intersect with each other at the remote target location and thereby create a destructive cavitation field at the intersection of the beams. The acoustic source and target can be located in unconfined underwater space and at a distance of at least 100 m apart. *
Underwater cavitation is being looked at for a number of applications -- including superfast sub and missiles, but this is different; it would actually use pure acoustic energy to destroy things, i.e. no bombs or missiles involved. The potential applications include "mine neutralization; torpedo self-defense, melee close-in encounter; and any sources or communication systems that must be left behind."
In an intriguing note on other uses, the patent says: "In view of the above detailed description, it is anticipated that the invention herein will have far reaching applications other than those of underwater destruction of undesirable objects."
Any ideas what that could be?
