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Comment by marsRoverDev | Hacker News Reader

I would put good money on the US Navy already having a map that is superior to this.

For certain parts of the world it's more than a certainty -- I've seen them! (Before my computer career I was a navigator in the US Navy.)

Where we don't yet have hyper-accurate bathymetric data there are boats like the USS Jimmy Carter which have lots of tricks and capabilities that we'll never learn about.

Was this already public info? I feel weird about people sharing classified info on the forums I frequent. (Even information that I don’t agree should be classified)

It's public knowledge that the US Navy has its own fleet of surveying vessels, concluding that they actually use them as well isn't much of a stretch.

I’ve had no access to classified anything ever and could have told you the US navy has remarkably good maps of several key parts of the ocean in which friendly or enemy boomer subs are likely to operate.

Like, of course they do. If there are any unusually-good ocean maps they have, it’s those, at least.

It's also public knowledge that the USS Jimmy Carter is a "very special" submarine. I have no direct knowledge of what it can do (I was a surface warfare type) but splicing into fiberoptic cables has been rumored many times by many sources.

"Blind Man's Bluff" is a great book about the work of espionage submarines and includes many anecdotes from other boats that were based at Kitsap.

Tapping cables is definitely something that's been done through history, but more of the stories were about things like recovering the remains of enemy test missiles for physical intelligence. Now that that fiber traffic is routinely encrypted anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if more of USS Jimmy Carter's missions are recovering North Korean rockets.

A former Navy Seal heads the org I work in. He’s an expert in telecommunications and fiber tech. I’ve always wondered how he go the job and knows so much about telecom…especially fiber.

You paid for it, why not?

Without divulging anything, as a map enthusiast, are there any public images of maps submariners use to navigate? It is just like bathymetric/contour maps with similar notations? Do they look cool?

I'm going to hazard a guess, by your use of 'map' rather than 'chart', that you're not very familiar with nautical charts. A lot of what they do is chart depths, including broad contours which get more precise in shallower areas and closer to land (not always the same thing). Check out https://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com/i-boating-fishing-...

Thanks, I've "enjoyed" nautical charts before, not for use, but the design. I just like seeing different kinds of maps/schematics and seeing their symbology or notation. Want to see something for submersible navigation, I imagine it's mostly countrs and depth indicators, but what about stuff like currents, thermocline layers, landmarks... like is there a big geologic underwater arch somewhere that subs pass under for shits and giggles. What do charts show subs that operate at 500m or vehicles designed to deeper. Things like that.

What you're looking at there would suffice as source material whether your keel depth is 30ft or 300, and then many layers of planning happen atop it.

> like is there a big geologic underwater arch somewhere that subs pass under for shits and giggles.

I can't promise there's not, but most naval services have proud traditions of firing captains who are involved in collisions, allisions, and groundings.

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