Shawn Chung on SSNX, Black Sea & Red Sea

Regular contributor Shawn Chung, on January 15, 2024, made some interesting comments on the following naval matters:

GDEB artwork of possible US SSNX design (courtesy 8:36 into this GDEB end of 2023 report video via H I Sutton).
---

Columbia X-tail

Note this is also a feature that SSNX concept models have displayed:
http://www.hisutton.com/US-Navy-SSNX-2023.html 

Theory-crafting: Ukraine midget submarines and UUVs

H. I. Sutton has also highlighted that Italian midget submarine maker, Drass, has recently displayed UUV concepts, and is building a DG-160 midget submarine in Romania, for an 'unknown country'. My own take on this is that a midget submarine, with minimal crew and built solely for electric batteries (and/or a Stirling engine) could make the 900 nautical mile round trip to Russia's Black Sea Fleet HQ Novorossiysk Naval Base fully submerged, to ferry Ukraine USVs to the vicinity of Novorossiysk undetected. 

Once deployed, these drones could then be controlled via satellite, allowing the midget sub to withdraw. 

We assume the Russians have the Black Sea 'wired for sound' - but as one of only two submarine powers (the other being Turkey) in that Sea, Russia could have atrophied Soviet-era detection systems (much like Russia's air defenses), this could explain how Ukraine has managed to slip drones around the Southern tip of Crimea.

Red Sea

I reckon we could hear of a UUV attack, though I don't expect the Houthis to have something fast enough to catch up with a merchant ship. The US and allies are also learning that the easiest way to stop drone attacks is to bomb Houthi control centers. This is something Ukraine is also using against Russia.