<keyword id="20929406" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA-astronaut" source="keywords">NASA astronaut</keyword> <keyword id="21976788" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Butch-Wilmore" source="keywords">Butch Wilmore</keyword> recently encountered a baffling situation aboard the <keyword id="19985509" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Space-Station" source="keywords">International Space Station</keyword> (ISS) when he reported a strange, <keyword id="23007593" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rhythmic-noise" source="keywords">rhythmic noise</keyword> coming from the Boeing <keyword id="21550667" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Starliner-spacecraft" source="keywords">Starliner spacecraft</keyword>. The incident, which occurred just days before the uncrewed Starliner was scheduled to return to Earth, has left both Wilmore and NASA engineers puzzled.<br /><br />On Saturday, Wilmore radioed <keyword id="23007592" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mission-Control" source="keywords">Mission Control</keyword> at Johnson Space Center in Houston, describing the noise as a "pulsating" or "sonar-like ping" that he could hear coming from the Starliner's internal speaker. Despite initial difficulty in picking up the sound, Mission Control eventually confirmed hearing it. "Butch, that one came through," they responded after the second attempt.<br /><div type="twitter" handle="ajtourville" handlename="ajtourville" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" id="1830256447583916110"></div>The noise, which repeated at regular intervals, was recorded by Wilmore and sent to the ground team for analysis. While the source of the sound remains unidentified, Wilmore humorously encouraged the engineers to "scratch your heads" and figure out what could be causing it.<br /><br />The Boeing Starliner has been docked at the ISS since June, with Wilmore and fellow astronaut <keyword id="21544825" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sunita-Williams" source="keywords">Sunita Williams</keyword> initially on a one-week mission that has since been extended due to technical issues, including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions. These delays have pushed their return to Earth to February 2025, with the pair now set to travel back in a <keyword id="21556038" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="SpaceX-Dragon-capsule" source="keywords">SpaceX Dragon capsule</keyword> instead of the Starliner.<br />  <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111357134" title="Boeing Starliner with Sunita Williams onboard could wait months in space before return as NASA mulls extending mission duration" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The mystery noise has sparked curiosity and concern as the spacecraft prepares for its unmanned return journey to Earth. NASA has yet to provide a definitive explanation, but the investigation continues as engineers work to ensure the Starliner’s safe return.<br /><br />The spacecraft is expected to land in the New Mexico desert as early as Friday, marking a crucial step in Boeing’s ongoing efforts to certify the Starliner for regular crewed missions. Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams remain focused on their extended mission aboard the ISS, continuing their vital work on scientific experiments and maintenance tasks while awaiting their eventual return to Earth.<br />  <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112805908" title="How will Sunita Williams’ body have changed when she returns from space in February 2025?" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><br />

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Boeing spacecraft was giving off a strange, pulsating “sonar-like” pings

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An Indonesian navy <keyword id="41760" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Submarine">submarine</keyword> has been missing for days, and time is fast running out.</li><li>Submarines, as submerged assets, can be tough to find when something goes wrong.</li><li>A former US Navy submariner walked Insider through what can make finding one so challenging.</li></ul><p>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-us-sending-air-assets-to-find-missing-indonesian-submarine-2021-4">desperate search</a> for a missing Indonesian naval submarine has been underway for days, and time appears to be running out, if it hasn't already.</p><p>"Submarines are designed to be hard to find, which is problematic when one sinks or goes down," said Bryan Clark, a former US Navy submarine officer.</p><p>Submarines are built to stealthily infiltrate enemy waters, close with and engage enemy naval assets, fire on ground targets with cruise and ballistic missiles, and even insert covert forces into enemy territory from protected submerged positions.</p><p>Not every submarine can carry out every mission, but regardless of the vessel's mission and capabilities, stealth is generally regarded as important.</p><div type="image" title="indonesian submarine" height="1447" width="2392" msid="82221745" hostid="261"></div><p><keyword id="8692" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Indonesia">Indonesia</keyword>'s missing navy submarine, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/indonesia-navy-submarine-missing-bali-2021-4">KRI Nanggala-402</a>, is a German-made diesel-electric attack submarine that is more than 40 years old.</p><p>Because of the submarine's age, it may lack the coating and stealthy features of newer boats, even after a 2012 refit, giving search-and-rescue teams a slight advantage as they try to find it, but other challenges offset any potential edge.</p><p>In an emergency, submarines can activate an onboard pinging device or send up a buoy that emits a trackable signal, assuming the submarine has these systems, the systems are working, and the submarine crew knows how to use them and has not been incapacitated.</p><p>The pinger, while it does not necessarily guarantee recovery, is invaluable because it allows search-and-rescue teams to use passive <keyword id="968438" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sonar">sonar</keyword> to scan a larger swath of the ocean in complement with other tools.</p><p>There is no indication that KRI Nanggala-402 is producing a sound that could aid the search. Clark, a defense expert at the Hudson Institute, speculated that were the boat making noise, it would have probably already been located.</p><p>"If it was making noise, it would be a lot easier to find," he said.</p><p>Without that distress pinging or other noise, search-and-rescue teams are limited to using active sonar, narrowing the scan and extending the time needed to search an area.</p><p>While passive sonar involves listening for sounds coming from objects in the ocean, active sonar refers to pinging sounds off objects in the ocean and listening for an echo.</p><p>The Indonesian navy determined that the submarine disappeared in waters north of the island of Bali. Search teams found a fuel slick early in their search, narrowing the area of interest.</p><p>In this general area, search units detected an object with a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/indonesia-missing-submarine-navy-says-unknown-object-found-2021-4">"strong magnetic resonance"</a> that might have come from the missing submarine.</p><p>Though these developments have significantly reduced the overall size of the search area, there is still a lot of water to look through. But Indonesia has dozens of ships and aircraft, supported by <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> assets, involved in the search.</p><div type="image" title="Indonesian navy helicopter land after taking part in search mission for missing Indonesian navy submarine KRI Nanggala 402 at Ngurah Rai Military Air Base in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia on April 23 2021" height="683" width="1024" msid="82221747" hostid="261"></div><p>The Indonesian navy has said the vessel might have sunk to a depth greater than 2,000 feet, which would certainly complicate the search further.</p><p>Not only is that depth beyond the maximum depth of the submarine, potentially putting it at risk of a catastrophic hull collapse, but it also possibly puts it <a href="https://www.insider.com/indonesia-missing-submarine-too-deep-to-rescue-navy-warns-2021-4">out of reach</a> of available recovery options.</p><p>Searching for things around the ocean floor is also rather challenging, Clark said.</p><p>"Like we've seen with various airline crashes, it's hard to find something, even that's big, when it goes down to the seafloor, because it gets mixed up in the clutter down there," he said.</p><p>The Argentine navy submarine ARA San Juan was lost in 2017. It was not until a year later that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/argentina-releases-first-images-of-the-sunken-submarine-san-juan-2018-11">search teams found the boat</a>, where 44 crew members perished, on the bottom of the ocean at a depth of around 3,000 feet.</p><p>Clark said, "If a small diesel submarine like the Indonesian one goes down in 2,000 feet of water, it is unlikely to survive."</p><p>The submarine's fate remains unknown, and the effort to find it is a race against time, as the vessel only had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crew-missing-indonesian-submarine-less-than-36-hours-of-oxygen-2021-4">about 72 hours of air</a> for the 53 people on board.</p>

An Indonesian submarine has been missing for days - here's what makes it so hard to find

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NATO militaries are wary of the expanding capability and activity of Russia's submarine fleet.</li><li>A top concern is that those subs could be used to attack or interfere with undersea cables and pipelines.</li></ul><p>NATO militaries have grown increasingly concerned about Russia's underwater capabilities, worrying that Moscow's attack and ballistic-missile submarines and special-purpose submersibles could be used to menace or attack their economic and military infrastructure.</p><p>French President Emmanuel Macron is the latest leader to warn about the threat, stating the importance of underwater security in a speech to the French military on January 20.</p><p>Macron wished for his country to "acquire a capacity to control the seabed" to depths of 19,600 feet, <a href="https://www.elysee.fr/front/pdf/elysee-module-20711-fr.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">citing</a> "military reasons" and the protection of "critical underwater infrastructure" as the imperatives behind his call, without explicitly mentioning Russia.</p><div type="image" title="Danish military video of bubbles in Baltic Sea where Nord Stream pipeline leaked." height="755" width="1007" msid="97995513" hostid="261" sizebytes="148094"></div><p>France's has numerous overseas territories that give Paris the world's second largest exclusive economic zone, which refers to an area extending 200 nautical miles from coastline where countries have exclusive rights.</p><p>This creates an "immense benefit" but also an "immense responsibility" to protect infrastructure and territory, Macron said.</p><p>The sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in late September highlighted longstanding concerns about the "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/suspected-nord-stream-sabotage-shows-vulnerability-of-undersea-cables-pipelines-2022-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vulnerability</a>" of underwater infrastructure, the chief of the British naval staff said after the pipelines were damaged.</p><p>Officials have not been able to prove <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/western-officials-still-worried-about-russia-after-nord-stream-attack-2023-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that Russia was behind the Nord Stream attacks</a>, but the incidents have only added to NATO's concerns about Russia's underwater capabilities. This week, NATO <a href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_211919.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it would set up a "coordination cell" to help militaries and industry work together "and boost the security of Allied undersea infrastructure."</p><h2>Allied concern</h2><div type="image" title="Deep sea cables " height="2550" width="3800" msid="97995516" hostid="261" sizebytes="291050"></div><p>Concern about Russia's expanding underwater capabilities and the danger they pose to critical underwater infrastructure has risen since Russia seized Crimea in 2014.</p><p>Since then, Russian submarines have deployed more often and for longer and their activity close to critical undersea infrastructure has increased. "We are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don't believe we have ever seen," the US Navy admiral in charge of NATO's submarine forces <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-submarines-are-prowling-around-vital-undersea-cables-its-making-nato-nervous/2017/12/22/d4c1f3da-e5d0-11e7-927a-e72eac1e73b6_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in 2017</a>.</p><p>Protecting that infrastructure is feasible in relatively shallow waters and close to naval bases, conditions that exist in the Baltic and Nordic seas, if sufficient submarine-detecting sensors are placed in the right areas, said Tuomas Pöyry, vice president of <a href="https://imagesoft.fi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image Soft</a>, a Finnish company that develops underwater surveillance systems.</p><p>However, the North Atlantic, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/invisible-and-vital-undersea-cables-and-transatlantic-security" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through which many such cables pass</a>, "is such a deep and wide area" that even if cables were protected with sensors and an approaching threat were detected, "by the time the defending force would go to the site, the cables and pipes would have already been destroyed and the offending sub would be long gone," Pöyry, who is also a captain in the Finnish military reserve, told Insider.</p><div type="image" title="Russian Navy Yasen-class submarine Kazan" height="1333" width="2000" msid="97995518" hostid="261" sizebytes="205518"></div><p>Russia has invested heavily in modernizing its submarine fleet, which has grown to 58 vessels, although 10 of them are more than 35 years old. The most worrying component of that expansion are the Yasen-class submarines. Two have entered service since 2014 and a third is undergoing <a href="https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/06/russias-third-project-885m-yasen-m-submarine-starts-sea-trials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sea trials</a>.</p><p>Yasens are considered <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/russia%E2%80%99s-yasen-class-submarines-why-cant-us-navy-track-it-180936" target="_blank" rel="noopener">especially quiet</a> and carry land-attack cruise missiles that NATO commanders <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-yasen-class-cruise-missile-submarines-worry-us-commanders-2023-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worry could be used to attack vital infrastructure</a> in Europe or the US if those subs are able to slip into the Atlantic during a war.</p><p>Recent Russian submarine activity does suggest an increasing focus on being able to get into the Atlantic and closer to the US East Coast.</p><p>In 2019, <a href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2019/10/russian-northern-fleet-massive-submarine-show?fbclid=IwAR3GeJq1gfpND026DsGJ8D0JvXrDPhH6BDWULF-X1k4oBeDfEt5cCEA2SNo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10 Russian submarines</a>, eight of them nuclear-powered, conducted a surge deployment from Arctic bases into the North Atlantic with the apparent aim of sailing as far as possible without being detected by NATO.</p><p>Vice Adm. Daniel Dwyer, commander of the US Navy's Virginia-based 2nd Fleet — which was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-reactivating-2nd-fleet-for-atlantic-amid-tensions-with-russia-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reactivated in 2018</a> in response to growing naval threats — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nato-trains-for-anti-submarine-warfare-amid-russia-ukraine-attack-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in 2022</a> that the Atlantic "no longer provided that geography" that enabled the defense of the mainland US "that we've enjoyed for so many decades."</p><div type="image" title="Russia navy Special Project submarine Belgorod" height="1307" width="2000" msid="97995520" hostid="261" sizebytes="171130"></div><p>Russia also continues building quiet diesel-electric Kilo II-class subs <a href="https://www.naval-technology.com/projects/kilo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">specialized for reconnaissance</a> and anti-submarine warfare and has built at least <a href="https://news.usni.org/2021/11/30/russia-growing-secret-submarine-fleet-key-to-moscows-undersea-future" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two large nuclear-powered subs</a> that Western experts believe are designed to launch smaller submersibles that could tap or attack undersea cables or pipelines.</p><p>Nuclear-powered subs have <a href="https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/newsroom/news/ask-expert-why-are-submarines-so-important" target="_blank" rel="noopener">several advantages</a> over conventionally powered subs: They are generally larger and can carry more weapons and can sail faster and over longer distances.</p><p>Nuclear-powered submarines with reactors designed to minimize the noise they make are "the most difficult" to detect, Pöyry told Insider.</p><p>"If a modern nuclear submarine dives and settles on the seabed to hide and wait, it is almost impossible to detect except if you happen to actively pinging it just on the right spot with an active sonar," Pöyry said.</p><p>But a submarine that moves will make noise, "and even silent nuclear submarines can be heard in right conditions tens of kilometers away," Pöyry said.</p><h2>Underwater sleuthing</h2><div type="image" title="Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129" height="542" width="800" msid="97995522" hostid="261" sizebytes="26624"></div><p>Attacking enemy warships, especially aircraft carriers, and enemy infrastructure, like ports, was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44636515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a primary mission</a> for Soviet attack and cruise-missile submarines during the Cold War, and keeping tabs on those subs was a major concern for NATO militaries.</p><p>Early in the Cold War, the US developed the Sound Surveillance System, or SOSUS, a classified network of sonars <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2021/february/66-years-undersea-surveillance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meant to detect and identify Soviet submarines</a> in the strategically located <a href="https://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-comments/2019/the-giuk-gaps-strategic-significance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Greenland-Iceland-UK gap</a> in the North Atlantic.</p><p>Information about SOSUS was eventually leaked to the Soviets, reducing its effectiveness, but the US ran the network until the end of the Cold War. The US also obtained intelligence on Soviet subs through covert operations, including the recovery of part of a sunken K-129 ballistic-missile sub <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cia-worked-with-billionaire-howard-hughes-to-recover-soviet-sub-2021-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in 1974</a> and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uss-connecticut-accident-hints-at-history-of-submarine-spying-2021-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tapping Soviet naval communications</a>.</p><div type="image" title="Russian submarine launching Kalibr cruise missile" height="1194" width="2000" msid="97995524" hostid="261" sizebytes="76666"></div><p>While the Russian navy fell into disrepair after the Cold War, NATO's focus on finding and tracking Russian subs has intensified in recent years as Moscow has strengthened its undersea fleet and shown the ability to strike target deep inland with new <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/ss-n-30a/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cruise missiles</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2023/2/3/puzzles-and-mysteries-anti-submarine-warfare-must-adapt-to-a-changing-equation-industry-experts-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Experts have said</a> new technologies will make detecting enemy subs more complex than ever in the years ahead. NATO militaries are guarded when describing their own capabilities to find those subs, but officials have acknowledged that they can't see everything they want to see.</p><p>At a Senate hearing in February 2020, the head of US European Command was asked if US forces have "sufficient visibility" on Russian submarines in the Atlantic. "We do but not for 100% of the time," he replied.</p><p><em>Constantine Atlamazoglou works on transatlantic and European security. He holds a master's degree in security studies and European affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. You can contact him on <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fconstantine-atlamazoglou&amp;amazonTrackingID=null&amp;site=bi&amp;vikingID=6361621a71518a06bc1f310d&amp;platform=browser&amp;sc=false&amp;disabled=false&amp;sessionID=1666213839364g7wks1lw&amp;postID=63d2a22b232821698378f7b3" target="_blank" title="LinkedIn" rel="nofollow noindex noopener sponsored">LinkedIn</a>.</em></p>

Rising tensions with Russia have NATO militaries worried about the revival of a Cold War-era submarine threat

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As US <keyword id="413144" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aircraft-carriers">aircraft carriers</keyword> operate around the world, the <keyword id="42407" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Navy">Navy</keyword> often relies on aerial assets to find and track <keyword id="117400" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Submarines">submarines</keyword>, one of the greatest existential threats to a carrier and its strike group.</li><li><keyword id="9079175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="p-8a">P-8A</keyword> Poseidon maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft can operate at higher altitudes and longer ranges than some other assets, allowing them to search broad areas for potential undersea threats.</li><li>"Our main mission is patrol and deterrence," a US Navy officer recently told Insider, explaining that when it comes to submarines, "we want to know where you are" and sometimes, "we want you to know that we know where you are."</li></ul><p>US aircraft carriers operate around the world, sometimes in unfriendly waters, and one of the greatest threats to these symbols of American military might is enemy submarines. That's where the sub hunters come in.</p><p>"In some parts of the world, we do armed patrol and escort for our carriers," US Navy Capt. Erin Osborne, the commodore for Wing Ten who oversees training, manning, and equipping of Navy P-8A squadrons, told Insider recently, explaining that if there are submarines out there, "we want to know that."</p><p>Rivals are challenging American military advantages through increases in undersea warfighting capacity and capability, "but we're keeping right up with them," Osborne said, pointing to the relatively new P-8 as a key increase in lethality. "I think we are staying ahead of the threat."</p><p>Crewed by a team of nine, US Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft are built to find enemy submarines. The Boeing P-8s are militarized 737-800ERX aircraft equipped with sensor systems and armed with torpedoes for tracking and, if necessary, engaging undersea threats. The aircraft, which was only introduced about seven years ago, also carries anti-ship weaponry.</p><p><div type="image" title="Sailor assigned to VP-16 prepare a P-8A aircraft for a flight." height="486" width="1000" msid="77037510" hostid="261"></div></p><h2>'The eyes and ears of the fleet'</h2><p>Successor to Lockheed's P-3 Orion, the P-8 provides advanced maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and is among the best sub hunters in the world. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.public.navy.mil/AIRFOR/vp8/Pages/Command%20History.aspx">Navy has described</a> the P-8 as "an extension of the eyes and ears of the fleet," as this aircraft, unlike some other anti-submarine warfare assets in the US arsenal, is uniquely suited to conducting sweeping patrols that cover large swaths of open ocean and track down possible threats to a ship beyond its horizon.</p><p>The Navy's land-based P-8s operate at higher altitudes and have a longer range than the anti-submarine warfare helicopters that are sometimes tied to ships at sea. The P-8s capabilities also give it certain advantages over US attack submarines — among the Navy's most important undersea warfighting assets.</p><p>While the P-8 is equipped to defeat independently — or in coordination with other assets — a potential enemy's submarines, Osborne stressed that "we're not flying around prepared to drop torpedoes all the time."</p><p>"Our main mission is patrol and deterrence," she said, explaining that when it comes to submarines, "we want to know where you are" and sometimes, "we want you to know that we know where you are."</p><p>The Navy uses its P-8s flexibly for more than just patrols, submarine hunting and overwatch. They are also used for drug interdiction missions, collecting intelligence, and carrying out search and rescue operations, with each mission having its own unique aims and demands.</p><p>For carrier strike group support missions, the main goal is situational awareness and threat detection. "We always want to be aware," Osborne said.</p><p>While an adversary could use missiles to cripple a carrier, "if they really wanted to sink the carrier, they might to turn to torpedoes," Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and defense expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), previously told Insider.</p><p>The Navy's carrier strike groups have relatively robust missile defense capabilities, but are much less prepared to counter torpedoes. "Torpedo defense is hard, not really perfected, and so they actually end up being the more worrying threat," he said.</p><p>Last month, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group conducted a <a href="https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=113403">three-day anti-submarine warfare drill</a> training US Navy forces to protect ships in transit and defend against submarine threats in chokepoints. During the exercise, a P-8 from the "War Eagles" of Patrol Squadron 16 provided airborne maritime patrol and reconnaissance support.</p><h2>'Finding a needle in a haystack'</h2><p>Finding enemy submarines in a real-world situation is, as one Navy official told Insider, like "finding a needle in a haystack." Sometimes the P-8 crew works off of intelligence; other times, they are conducting an open-ocean search.</p><p>Anti-submarine missions can involve a lot of figuring out where an enemy is not and then closing in on the target, like playing the classic board game of Battleship, except in this case, your opponent can see both sides of the board.</p><p>"I personally think that our ASW [anti-submarine warfare] mission is our most exciting mission," Osborne explained, calling the hunt both "an art and a science."</p><p>"How does an airplane up in the sky find a submarine under the water? We have sonobuoys that we drop in the water, and the sonobuoys talk to the plane," she said, explaining that a sonobuoy is essentially a hydrophone. "So, a microphone goes into the water and we listen for the submarine as it passes information back to the aircraft."</p><p>A sonobuoy dropped from a P-8A deploys a float when it strikes the water, sending its sonar system lower into the water column. Passive systems act as these underwater microphones while active systems send sonic pings into the water that bounce off objects. These returns are then transmitted back to the P-8A for assessment, and with sonar from nearby ships and submarines can paint a picture of where an adversary's sub lurks.</p><p>Without going into the geometry, she explained that "you can figure out where they might be based on the sounds that you hear." Basically, the aircraft drops an array of sonar listening devices down in the water that allow the crew to zero in on a sub's position.</p><p>It takes more than just the technology to get the job done though, Osborne said. "We have got the technology on the aircraft, we understand how the buoys work, and there's a manual with recommended tactics, but at the end of the day, there's a bit of an art to it as well," she said, adding that it is impossible for any one person to do the mission alone.</p><p>Each P-8 aircrew has three pilots, a tactical coordinator, a co-tactical coordinator, two acoustic operators, and two electronic warfare operators.</p><p>"The pilots put the plane in the right place. The tac decides where the buoy drops. The sensor operators are listening and processing the buoys. It's a team effort to say this is where we think the submarine is," Osborne said.</p><p>"Based on our experiences, based on what our processors are telling us, and based on what we know about the tactics of the target, we think the submarine is over here," she said. "Then we take the plane over there, put another buoy in or fly another pattern."</p><p>All that hard work does not always pay off, but when it does, Osborne said "it is always satisfying to find a submarine."</p><p>She noted though that they are not hunting subs for fun. "This isn't a flying club," she said. "We're out there doing missions every day, and we're doing it for the safety and security of the nation."</p>

These US Navy planes help hunt down one of the greatest threats to American aircraft carriers — here's how they do it

<p class="financial-disclaimer"><i>When you buy through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. <a href="https://www.insider-inc.com/commerce-on-insider-inc/">Learn more.</a></i></p><p><a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored"></a></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Linksys's Velop line of mesh routers is a home Wi-Fi solution that is easy to set up and maintain and which has performed well over weeks of testing.</li><li>The system's app-based configuration and remote access makes changing settings and looking up information convenient.</li><li>The height of the vertical router devices can potentially be more limiting for placing around the house, but the matte white plastic finish and overall design is pleasant.</li></ul><iframe src="https://produktor.businessinsider.com/productCardService?id=5d261e41a17d6c416723cb57&amp;type=small&amp;live=true" width="100%" height="150%" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute; top:0; left: 0"></iframe><p>While the system is costly and premium when rated at <a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored">AC2200</a> (midrange signal strength and range), it's still largely in-line with similar solutions from other companies.</p><p>Picking a suitable mesh networking router system is key for homes that need extended Wi-Fi. Instead of picking the biggest, beefiest possible router and directing its signal to every part of the house, mesh networking divides up the workload to multiple units or nodes around the house that, most of the time, reach further than one single wireless router could. There are plenty of choices for mesh systems, but one of the emerging favorites has been the <a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored">Linksys Velop AC2200</a>.</p><p>To test out the mesh networking system, I installed it in a two-story, 2,000 square foot home in Southern California. I have used other mesh networks from Eero and Google in the past, and I wanted to see how Linksys's version handled heavy use across 40-plus devices.</p><p>Linksys is a long-time player in the networking world, first owned by Cisco and now owned by Belkin. The <a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored">Velop AC2200 router</a> comes in either a one, two, or three pack to start off, but the whole point of a mesh system is that it supports multiple nodes, and so you can add additional ones if an area of your home is still not getting decent coverage.</p><p>The company offers several different Velop systems. I tested the <a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored nofollow sponsored">three-pack of the AC2200</a>. Each of the different variants provide different levels of feature sets. For example, the latest, and super-expensive, MX5 Velop AX includes support for Wi-Fi 6. The general mesh system that the Velop name refers to should be quite similar in customer experience such as the app other touch points.</p><h2>Linksys Velop specifications</h2><p><a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow noopener sponsored sponsored"><div type="image" title="Linksys Velop" height="900" width="1200" msid="78409993" hostid="261"></div></a></p><ul><li>Wi-Fi Technology: Tri-Band AC2200 (867 + 867 + 400 Mbps)‡ with MU-MIMO and 256 QAM </li><li>Wi-Fi Bands: Simultaneous Tri-Band (2.4Ghz + 5GHz + 5GHz) </li><li>Number of Ethernet Ports: 2x WAN/LAN auto-sensing Gigabit Ethernet ports </li><li>Antennas: 6x internal antennas and high powered amplifiers </li><li>Processor: 716 MHz Quad Core </li><li>Dimensions (LxWxH): 3.1" x 3.1" x 7.3" per Node </li><li>Security Features: WPA2 personal </li><li>Additional Information: Bluetooth 4.0/LE for app based set-up </li><li>Beamforming: for 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands </li></ul><h2>Setup and features</h2><p>Much like solutions from other companies, Linksys utilizes a mobile app to connect to its wireless mesh system to begin the setup process and configure all the settings. The Velop system is feature-rich and looks to the future in terms of its app-based utility.</p><p>Setting up the <a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored">Velop AC2200</a> system is very simple and straightforward. I've set up hundreds of wireless networks over the last 15 years in a technical role, but I continually try to keep people in mind who may be doing this for the first time. Much like Eero should get credit for leading the charge in simplifying the setup process of wireless networks, I think Linksys does a great job at wrangling all the potential headaches into a few easy-to-understand steps.</p><p>Half the time it takes to set up the three-node mesh network is spent walking to the different locations and plugging the nodes into power. The app detects each node with my phone about one foot away from it, and the first one takes a few minutes to get itself ready for the name and password I want to use.</p><p>For some reason, setting up the second two nodes each take a little bit longer to configure than the first one, but it should be expected as the app says it will take about six minutes to gather the settings from the other devices. I actually set up two nodes initially and then came back later to finish adding the third unit. It worked nearly the same to set up one later as it did the first time around.</p><p><a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow noopener sponsored sponsored"><div type="image" title="Linksys Velop" height="2865" width="3821" msid="78409998" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>All the standard features you'd expect from a premium mesh system are present, including remote access, basic parental controls, guest network, device prioritization, and speed testing.</p><p>The basic parental controls allow you to pause device access (or schedule pauses) and block specific websites. These features work as advertised.</p><p>Linksys does try to upsell its advanced parental controls for $50 per year with Linksys Shield. For a little over $4 a month, you can block potentially harmful sites based on categories like social networking or gaming.</p><p>The other upsell for the mesh system comes in the form of Linksys Aware. This advanced feature will detect motion in your home and alert you either all the time, or just at the times you want to know about. Aware costs $25 each year to use your router as a motion-detector. For the curious, it works by detecting changes with the invisible radio waves, similar to the response time in sonar. I did not try either of these premium add-on services, so I can't comment on their effectiveness.</p><p>One of the disappointing features missing is the ability to see how much data a certain device is consuming or has consumed. If you are experiencing a sudden or random decline in speed, it can be helpful to see how much data each device connected is pulling in. Google's Wifi system provides this functionality, and I have found it extremely valuable the half dozen times I've needed to check on something.</p><p>Another slightly disappointing task was sharing the guest network password was a bit buried. If you open the app and scroll to the bottom, you'll see a button that says, "Share Wi-Fi." This opens a screen to share the password to your main network over email, text, or copy it to the phone's clipboard. It would be nice to see a share guest network button underneath as that's the one that will likely get shared more times. The functionality is still there under the guest network setting; it just requires a few more taps each time.</p><p>After some delay, Linksys has begun rolling out its Apple HomeKit support. We're excited by this feature because of the further integration it provides for iOS users and potentially simplifies ease of use even more. It's a great addition for those who are in the Apple ecosystem, but doesn't take away anything for those who don't need it.</p><h2>Performance</h2><p>I switched over from a first-generation Google Wifi mesh network with four units to the Velop AC2200 with three nodes for testing. After installing a fourth Google Wifi unit in my bedroom, I hadn't had any issues with my current setup.</p><p>The Velop system claims to provide coverage of 2,000 square feet for a single node and up to 6,000 square feet of home coverage when all three are in use.</p><p>My front yard and backyard, as well as the garage all saw full bars of wireless signal most of the time. Despite the signal strength, I once experienced degraded wireless streaming performance watching Hulu on Apple TV in the same room as a Velop node. After checking the internet speed inside the Linksys app and seeing full speed from my internet service provider, it's hard to tell where the temporary problem resided.</p><p>This issue allowed me the opportunity to try the app's prioritization feature and set the Apple TV device to be prioritized over others in the house for a limited amount of time. If the app would show how much data each device in the home is consuming, it would also make seeing rogue culprits contributing to degraded streaming video quality easier. The problem resolved itself after a few minutes as being listed as prioritized.</p> <p>I installed the new units in the same locations as the other ones, minus that fourth unit in the bedroom. In my initial assessment of the performance, it seemed to load content across apps and sites as fast as expected. I have had the intermittent slow down and degraded performance, but after checking it has not been something that can be pinned on the mesh system specifically. And, over the years I have not encountered a Wi-Fi network which didn't encounter the occasional hiccup.</p><p>Even in the garage or other places farthest removed from a node, ping time latency and local network speeds remains acceptable.</p><p>For any hiccups customers do experience, there's a button in the Linksys app that runs through the basics for people experiencing slow internet — speed check, household usage, signal strength, and restarting the system.</p><h2>Design</h2><p><a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow noopener sponsored sponsored"><div type="image" title="Linksys Velop" height="3024" width="4032" msid="78410003" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>Linksys chose to go tall instead of wide with its mesh-router nodes. The matte white mini towers are solid plastic on one side, while the other side is peppered with holes, presumably for ventilation.</p><p>Overall the tiny statues dedicated to wireless connectivity should be manageable in a variety of locations in homes, despite their roughly eight-inch height. While Eero and Nest went wider and flatter with the access points, the Velop units are more slender.</p><p>I liked the matte white finish, though I could have done without the shiny Linksys logo. The three-piece mesh networking system blends in fine with my home's decor, but may or may not be out of place at your home.</p><p>Some of the different Velop models are slightly shorter, and one model coming in a black colorway which could be a consideration, but each are proudly vertical in their design.</p><h2>The bottom line</h2><p>The <a href="https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/c/196318/614286/10014?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Flinksys-velop-tri-band-mesh-wi-fi-system-3-pack-white%2F5709451.p%3FskuId%3D5709451" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored nofollow sponsored">Linksys Velop AC2200</a> is an effective, solid mesh networking option. It provides ease-of-use for first-time network "admins" and plenty of features for those looking for advantage configurations. This is a competitive solution for robust wireless networking.</p><h3>Alternatives</h3><p>While Linksys' Velop AC2200 is a great solution, there are of course others that match up similarly.</p><p>Eero's latest mesh system provides a largely parallel experience to Velop. Although Eero is also priced in a premium fashion, Amazon does regularly put it on discount which might undercut this Linksys option.</p><p>Google's Nest Wifi mesh system is probably one of the most interesting in this space because of two unique features. First, the wireless units provide Google Assistant voice functionality so you can talk to them the same way you would a Google Home Mini or other voice assistant. A minor, but important, feature is that Google's wireless system also shows which devices are consuming data and how much. You can view data use in real-time or on a weekly or monthly basis.</p><iframe src="https://produktor.businessinsider.com/productCardService?id=5d261e41a17d6c416723cb57&amp;type=button&amp;live=true" width="100%" height="150%" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute; top:0; left: 0"></iframe>

The Linksys Velop mesh router system includes Apple HomeKit in an easy setup that provides reliable Wi-Fi when everyone is at home

<p class="p1"><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="DARPA" title_caption="An artist rendering of the autonomous vessel." class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/513e42e4ecad040b37000008-960/actuv-ship-drone.jpg"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/513e42e4ecad040b37000008-650-487/actuv-ship-drone.jpg?maxX=400" border="0" alt="ACTUV ship drone" width="400" /></a></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.darpa.mil">DARPA</a></p><p class="caption">An artist rendering of the autonomous vessel.</p></div></p>
<p class="p1">The drone war taking place over the skies of Afghanistan, carrying out remotely-piloted attacks on terrorist targets, will soon take an unexpected turn — underwater.</p>
<p class="p1"><span>The new 'drone ship' is called the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vehicle (ACTUV)</span><span>, and once completed, it will be a <strong>totally autonomous, submarine spying platform.</strong></span></p>
<p class="p1">With 43 countries fielding submarines, it's getting tougher for the Navy to track the estimated 600 of them. That may change with the ACTUV program, led by <span><keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> Advanced Research Projects Agency (<keyword id="265122" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="DARPA">DARPA</keyword>), with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and <keyword id="110571" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Raytheon">Raytheon</keyword> Corp. working to develop it.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Unlike a flying drone which requires a pilot to monitor and strike targets, the ACTUV <strong>doesn't require an operator.</strong></p>
<p class="p1">"This is a brave new world we're embarking on," Ed <span>Hoak</span>, program manager for Raytheon told Business Insider. "How do you take something that has been operator intensive and take that operator <a href="http://www.tetvet.org/outofpocket.html" target="_blank">out of the loop</a>?"</p>
<p class="p1">That operator would be a Navy sonar technician, a sailor usually<strong> </strong>wearing headphones and monitoring a computer screen. Sonar techs were immortalized in the character of "Jonesy" in the 1990 film <em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099810/" target="_blank">The Hunt for Red October</a>, </em>who called out enemy submarines as they approached.</p>
<p class="p1">"We're taking Jonesy out of the loop and going completely autonomous," said Hoak.</p>
<p class="p1"><span>Trawling along on the ocean surface, the drone ship will receive instructions to go to a certain waypoint and loiter.</span></p>
<p class="p1">At a total program cost of $61 million, the ACTUV will be outfitted with an active and passive sonar system that has search, detection, and passive threat filtering capabilities. The advanced system allows the craft to send active "pings" for potential threats — which would reveal its position, or stay passive and listen while maintaining stealth.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="image-container" style="width:640px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/513e4313ecad046039000003-650-343/actuv_vhfs.jpg" border="0" alt="ACTUV underwater drone ship" width="640" /></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.darpa.mil">DARPA</a></p><p class="caption">An artist rendering of the ACTUV tracking a submarine.</p></div></p>
<p class="p1">"When there's some sort of intelligence or something of interest, it will autonomously move, all by itself, obeying all the rules of the road for the ocean," <span>Hoak</span> told Business Insider. Basically, the ship will follow norms of ocean tavel and be advanced enough not to crash into other surface ships.</p>
<p class="p1">Then, once it picks up the "suspicious contact," it will monitor and report back. "It will trail and actively track that submarine for up to 3 months," <span>Hoak</span> said.</p>
<p class="p1">The push for an autonomous drone in the ocean is a step toward a leaner Navy, that's meant to complement the existing fleet.</p>
<p class="p1">"If you can put a reasonably low-cost sensing vehicle and put it in harms way <span>for a fraction of the cost [of a typical Navy ship]</span>, that's a good tradeoff," <span>Hoak</span> told Business Insider. "Thats the type of technology we have going on here."</p>
<p class="p1">The Navy caught a Russian submarine off the <a href="http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/06/navy-detects-russian-sub-off-u-s-east-coast/" target="_blank">eastern seaboard in Oct. 2012</a>, certainly bolstering arguments in favor of anti-submarine technology. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Sam Kephart, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssoOASanKao" target="_blank">a drone critic</a> who worked in the high-end security business for 17 years, is not so sure.</span></p>
<p class="p1">There are a number of factors that he believes need to be addressed — such as how a ship can autonomously comply with many different maritime laws, how they steer safely away from other sea traffic, and perhaps most important: how does it distinguish between friend and foe?</p>
<p class="p1"><span>"Overall, I think the seaborne-drone program has merit, however, we have an American public that's not being told the truth about the nature and scope of the <keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> risk relative to global submarine proliferation," Kephart told Business Insider.</span></p>
<p class="p1">For now at least, the drones will only be used for surveillance with no plans for having them armed, although <span>Hoak</span> believes eventually they could have a variety of other uses, like mine detection. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"We are certainly interested in exploring other payloads on this vehicle," he said.</span></p>
<p class="p1">The deadline for the sonar system delivery from Raytheon is due in a year and a half, with full program demonstration expected in the "next couple of years," according to <span>Hoak</span>.</p>
<p class="p1">SAIC also put together this demonstration video to show some of its potential capabilities:</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qMGNq_1ec3c"></iframe></p>

The Navy Is Working On A Drone Ship To Track Submarines

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/573fe6759105841c008c4510-3448-2586/rtsezsu.jpg" alt="EgyptAir" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Christian Hartmann" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Christian Hartmann</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>French investigators have confirmed on Saturday that smoke was detected in "multiple places" on board the <span>doomed EgyptAir jetliner in the minutes before it crashed, likely indicating "the start of a fire."</span></p><p><span>The news came after s</span>earch crews found floating human remains, luggage and seats from the flight on Friday - but face a potentially more complex task in locating bigger pieces of wreckage and the black boxes vital to determining exactly why the plane plunged into the Mediterranean.</p><p>Looking for clues to whether terrorists brought down EgyptAir Flight 804 and its 66 people aboard, investigators pored over the passenger list and questioned ground crew members at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where the plane took off.</p><p>The Airbus A320 had been cruising normally in clear skies on a nighttime flight to Cairo early Thursday when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spun all the way around and plummeted 38,000 feet (11,582.4 meters) into the sea, never issuing a distress signal.</p><p>In Egypt, home to 30 of the victims, grieving families and friends wondered if their loved ones would ever be recovered. Many gathered in mosques for Salat al-Ghaib, or "prayers for the absent," held for the dead whose bodies have not been found.</p><p>"This is what is ripping our hearts apart, when we think about it. When someone you love so much dies, at least you have a body to bury. But we have no body until now," said Sherif al-Metanawi, a childhood friend of the pilot, Mohammed Shoukair.</p><p>Spokesperson Sebastien Barthe told The Associated Press that the plane's automatic detection system sent messages indicating smoke a few minutes before it disappeared from radar. He said the messages "generally mean the start of a fire."</p><p>He adds: "We are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/573eeeacdd0895e2128b4881-1341-1466/rtsf0xd.jpg" alt="Map locating the flight path of EgyptAir Flight MS804 which disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea enroute from Paris to Cairo." data-mce-source="Reuters" /><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Egyptian authorities said they believe terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure, and some aviation experts have said the erratic flight suggests a bomb blast or a struggle in the cockpit. But so far no hard evidence has emerged.</p><p>No militant group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft. That is a contrast to the downing of a Russian jet in October over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula that killed 224 people. In that case, the Islamic State group's branch in Sinai issued a claim of responsibility within hours. On Friday, IS issued a statement on clashes with the Egyptian military in Sinai, but nothing about the plane.</p><p>Three European security officials said the passenger manifest for Flight 804 contained no names on terrorism watch lists. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. The manifest was leaked online and has not been verified by the airline.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/573fe71152bcd024008c45d7-3000-1500/gettyimages-533028676.jpg" alt="Cairo Airport" data-mce-source="Chris McGrath/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="People are seen arriving at Cairo International Airport Terminal 1 on May 20, 2016." /><p class="source"><span>Chris McGrath/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">People are seen arriving at Cairo International Airport Terminal 1 on May 20, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Further checks are being conducted on relatives of the passengers.</p><p>French aviation investigators have begun to check and question all baggage handlers, maintenance workers, gate agents and other ground crew members at De Gaulle Airport who had a direct or indirect link to the plane before it took off, according to a French judicial official. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.</p><p>Experts said answers will come only with an examination of the wreckage and the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders, commonly known as black boxes.</p><p>Report of smoke and a possible fire were earlier reported on Friday by The Aviation Herald, a website that covers the civil aviation industry. </p><p>The publication cited information transmitted through the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which transmits data from the plane to the ground in the form of a series of messages. Those messages showed that smoke was detected in the plane's lavatory near the cockpit, according to the report.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/573fe83552bcd05b008c4586-1108-554/ap_16141330423994.jpg" alt="In this Thursday, May 19, 2016 video image released by the Egyptian Defense Ministry, an Egyptian plane flies over an Egyptian ship during the search in the Mediterranean Sea for the missing EgyptAir flight 804 plane" data-mce-source="AP Images" data-mce-caption="In this Thursday, May 19, 2016 video image released by the Egyptian Defense Ministry, an Egyptian plane flies over an Egyptian ship during the search in the Mediterranean Sea for the missing EgyptAir flight 804 plane." /><p class="source"><span>AP Images</span></p><p class="caption">In this Thursday, May 19, 2016 video image released by the Egyptian Defense Ministry, an Egyptian plane flies over an Egyptian ship during the search in the Mediterranean Sea for the missing EgyptAir flight 804 plane.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A French Navy patrol boat left the port of Toulon on Friday with sonar that can pick up the underwater "pings" emitted by the recorders. But it will take the vessel two or three days to reach the search zone.</p><p>Ships and planes from Egypt, Greece, Britain, France, the United States and Cyprus have taken part in the search for what's left of Flight 804, scouring the waters roughly halfway between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast.</p><p>The waters in the area are 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep (2,440 to 3,050 meters), and the pings can be detected up to a depth of 20,000 feet (6 kilometers).</p><p>"Its batteries allow it to transmit for 30 days," Athanassios Binis, head of Greece's aviation accident investigation agency, said on state TV. Once a vessel detects the recorders, "the next step would be to pinpoint it and go down with special equipment to recover it."</p><p>Egyptian searchers found the first debris from the crash around 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria. Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi informed relatives there were no survivors, the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/573fe8c19105841d008c43d6-5184-2592/rtseys8.jpg" alt="EgyptAir" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh" data-mce-caption="Unidentified relatives and friends of passengers who were flying in an EgyptAir plane that vanished from radar en route from Paris to Cairo react as they wait outside the Egyptair in-flight service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt May 19, 2016." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh</span></p><p class="caption">Unidentified relatives and friends of passengers who were flying in an EgyptAir plane that vanished from radar en route from Paris to Cairo react as they wait outside the Egyptair in-flight service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport, Egypt May 19, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The crash has struck a demoralizing blow to Egypt. The economy has been gutted by years of turmoil since the 2011 overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, and the Russian plane crash caused a new plunge in tourism, one of the country's main money makers.</p><p>Amid fears that a security lapse in Paris may have led to the tragedy, France's junior minister for transport, Alain Vidalies, defended security at De Gaulle Airport, saying staff badges are revoked if there is the slightest doubt.</p><p>French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault asserted on French television that there is "absolutely no indication" of what caused the crash.</p><p>The pilot, Shoukair, was experienced, with 6,275 flying hours, and co-pilot Ahmed Assem had clocked 2,101, officials said.</p><p>A terror analyst who is in contact with members of the Islamic State group and other jihadist groups said there have been "no credible or even semi-credible" claims of responsibility for the tragedy.</p><p>Shiraz Maher at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation in London said the Islamic State issued a 20-minute video Thursday about its plans to conquer India.</p><p>"If they had been involved in the crash," he said, "it would be very odd for them to have sent that video rather than boasting of the crash."</p><p>___</p><p>Dodds reported from London. AP correspondents Nicholas Paphitis in Athens and Sam Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.</p>

You Searched For "sonar like pings" and got 7 results

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Boeing spacecraft was giving off a strange, pulsating “sonar-like” pings

Ashmita Gupta

An Indonesian submarine has been missing for days - here's what makes it so hard to find

Ryan Pickrell

Rising tensions with Russia have NATO militaries worried about the revival of a Cold War-era submarine threat

Constantine Atlamazoglou

These US Navy planes help hunt down one of the greatest threats to American aircraft carriers — here's how they do it

Ryan Pickrell

The Linksys Velop mesh router system includes Apple HomeKit in an easy setup that provides reliable Wi-Fi when everyone is at home

Tyler Hayes

The Navy Is Working On A Drone Ship To Track Submarines

Paul Szoldra

Smoke was detected 'in multiple places' on board EgyptAir Flight 804 before it crashed

Associated Press,Rob Price