Plasma Hull

Fiber-laser supercavitation, as a model you can open.

No propeller. No rudder. No exhaust.

Harbin Engineering University proposed a submarine skinned in optical fiber. Nanosecond laser pulses ionize seawater into plasma. The blast shoves the hull forward, and the vapor it leaves behind is meant to wrap the metal so the hull rides in gas, not water.

Hull sectionOpenDrive68%

Cited thrust

47.6 kN

Cited laser

1.36 MW

The meter is the press-cited ceiling — about 70 kN from 2 MW — multiplied by the dial. It is not a calculation of this hull. Ge Yang et al., Acta Optica Sinica 44(6), 2024. Concept illustration, not a boat that has been built.