Agreed. Though the fiber optic unit sitting on top looks to be a simple media converter, very inexpensive way to interface with a unit designed to be submerged. Submersible RJ45 outlets exist but why reinvent the wheel when a throwaway converter unit will do the job?

It’s that Chinese Meter.

Intel device? INTEL DEVICE!?!?!?!?!

The bottom of the sea is a dusty place?

In 1995 they commissioned a new US warship that used removable platter hard drives (UYH-3s, to be exact). To change the program, you powered down the drives, retracted the heads and swapped in a new set of platters. As a note, this is also when they finally removed the paper tape punch/reader from the ships as well,…

I think that “dust” is sediment and/or corrosion. Not that your other points are invalid.

Very true Tyler people believe way to much of the movies. In long range ISR missions simple as it can be to fill the requirements of the AO is the best.

Devices that must work autonomously in extreme environments, such as underwater or in space, often look ‘clunky’. Delicate microcircuitry is very susceptible to stray static electricity, moisture build up, etc.; and so space probes are sometimes built with primitive-looking components because those are known to be…

Considering the size of the thing...it could be nearly launched sideways of a standard “torpedo bay”. Unless the submarine that launched that thing was launched itself from a torpedo bay, then the scale may make sense.

This is a Sonar Buoy used by 85% of the Military fleets. It is built to float on the top of the water sending a sonar signal to helicopters or ships regarding sub movements. They are designed to be retrieved but in rough waters like the china sea during a storm they can sink since the bouyance gets effected they are…

I know exactly what it is:

90 inches long by 4-5 inches , seems right to me.

It's waaay too small to "fit" a torpedo tube.

Yep, my experience has been that the low production volume of military hardware means that a lot of stuff is less polished than what you’d expect from a consumer product. And in this case, using commodity COTS hardware is probably a feature, since it would make it harder to trace back to any specific country.

Why is that not just a sonobuoy? Or a version of a sonobuoy?

When I first saw it I thought a side-scan sonar fish, but by the description they provided it did not match, and the Chinese know full well what those systems are. As for your thoughts that a device like this would not use COTS parts, I can’t disagree with more.

Considering it probably used some COTS parts because it was expendable or brought to service under a urgent requirement I am not surprised bu this. I think many have a very different idea of what the military’s level of tech is in some respects. The B-2 largely ran on I believe 286 architecture until recently, some of…

It is probably disposable and may have been there for many years.

No, the crews for the initial flights of each vehicle have already been announced: http://io9.com/these-astronau…

I see your point, but your details are a bit off.