The Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China this week reported the first successful test of a magnetohydrodynamic drive that could let ships and submarines sneak around almost totally silently.
The system, built by the imaginatively named state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, was
apparently fired up for its first test on a naval vessel at 11am on October 18, and the vessel reached "the designated speed" for the tests.
Magnetohydrodynamic drives
aren't new: they have been tested for decades, but were largely abandoned for being too slow and power hungry. The devices work by electrifying water and then using powerful magnetic fields to propel themselves.