Well, to be accurate, these vessels are usually not fully submersible / true submarines. That would require a level of engineering and cost that is probably not worth it for smugglers.
These are semi-submersed "snorkeling" vessels that breath surface air and ride just under the water, which makes it much simpler to design/build + operate.
The real goal is to get most of the ship off the surface where it can be easily detected. Semi-submersible is good enough for that purpose.
I'm guessing various countries' navies (underwater sound detection) probably can detect these vessels with some accuracy if they wanted to, they just don't have the resources/time to go after them as their top priority.
> I'm guessing various countries' navies (underwater sound detection) probably can detect these vessels with some accuracy if they wanted to, they just don't have the resources/time to go after them as their top priority.
The ocean is huge and actual nation state subs are incredibly stealthy. It is far more feasible to just pay super close attention to all known subs and follow them out of known ports, focusing your tech on tracking them. Those narco "subs" just rely on how big the ocean is to avoid some patrol just happening to see them.
But, in my opinion, in this particular instance it could be seen as a meta comment that the submission title is wrong. It says "submarine", but the vessel in question is not in fact a submarine and that is also annoying.
The title is supposedly written by someone who has read the article they're submitting, after all.
These are semi-submersed "snorkeling" vessels that breath surface air and ride just under the water, which makes it much simpler to design/build + operate.
The real goal is to get most of the ship off the surface where it can be easily detected. Semi-submersible is good enough for that purpose.
I'm guessing various countries' navies (underwater sound detection) probably can detect these vessels with some accuracy if they wanted to, they just don't have the resources/time to go after them as their top priority.