– How can Navy submarines communicate / navigate but the missing titanic submersible can’t do either.

Question

Context: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65953872

The above titanic submersible that went missing can only send short text messages from the ship to the submersible. From my understanding there is no GPS underwater and radio communication is impossible. How can Navy submarines communicate and navigate while submerged in the ocean but the missing submersible can’t?

In: 121

Answer 1

When they’re underwater, they don’t… normally. When they’re close to the surface, there’s antennas that can go out to communicate.

There is an underwater “telephone” that can be used for communication, but that can only communicate with a ship directly above it. Its normally only used for special testing, and the messages can break up.

Source: former submariner.