Multimillion Dollar Drug Submarines are Real and Sophisticated

Strategypage.com
"April 5, 2011: The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) finally sent a team down to Ecuador to do a thorough technical analysis of one of the two submarines found down there in the last eight months. These subs are real, but it took some arm-twisting to get ONI to take it all seriously, and carefully examine one of the boats. The ONI team spent 48 hours going over the small sub, and concluded that it was more sophisticated than first thought. The outer hull was made out of strong, lightweight, Kevlar/carbon fiber that was sturdy enough to keep the sub intact, but very difficult to detect with most sensors. The hull could not survive deep dives, but this boat didn't have to go deep to get the job done. The ONI team concluded that the diesel-electric power supply, diving and surfacing system and navigational system were all in working order. Some of those who built this boat probably had experience building recreational subs, but some of the others had impressive knowledge of the latest materials used to build exotic boats. As the ONI team assembled all their findings, it became clear that something extraordinary was happening in these improvised jungle shipyards."Rest of article