The U.S. Navy Tried to Turn Whale Songs into Secret Code (2017)

They got the TR3B Astra now, not sure if viable (I guess they'd only use it in an important assignment (ala secret helicopter used in Bin Laden raid) or something or in 20-30 years).

It kinda hovers instead of propelling itself forward.

Funnily enough it looks a lot like some black triangle actual UFOs (e.g. not American, probably alien), so there's a lot of overlap with ufology and "conspiracy "theories"" so some people claim it's fake.

It uses a nuclear reactor + mercury.

Something tells me the mercury needs constant refuel though, probably would have to be deployed from an aircraft carrier.

https://matrixdisclosure.com/tr-3b-black-triangle/

Well, ok. Swords to Plowshares, project Orion. There are things that might be more dangerous that might need a little bit more thought before just giving it a shot. But RTGs turned out to be pretty neat.

Superconducting supercollider was pretty much the end, as far as I can tell. That seemed to be the end of "try whatever crazy idea" and switched to "try what's promising". I mean, I guess it's ok. I would have preferred "try what's cheap".

The deepwater sound channel conducts low frequency noise very efficiently, like a waveguide. The low frequency active sonar which the navy uses is as loud as a 747 jet engine and it can travel a very long distance through the deepwater sound channel without losing much energy. Mass beachings are still common near wherever the navy is testing it's active sonar and beached whales have been found with ruptured inner ears, though I can't find the reports now.

A lot of the navy's active sonar technology is classified so most of what we civilians know about it is based off of hydrophone measurements, autopsies of dead whales, maps of mass beaching events and whatever information the navy has made publicly available.