Sharks and the US Military
- Guest written by historian, Stephen Bance -
Episode 9 of Shark Files covers the case of the USS Indianapolis and her last voyage at the end of the Second World War. The Indy sank after being torpedoed in the Philippine Sea in 1945, and many of her crew were subsequently attacked by oceanic whitetip sharks. In terms of victim numbers- perhaps as high as 200 according to a military memorandum- this was, by most counts, the largest recorded mass shark attack in history. Both before and after this incident though, interactions between sharks and military personnel have been extremely rare. In spite of this, the American military has far from ignored the animals. In fact, military intrigue in sharks persisted for the entirety of the twentieth century, and beyond, fluctuating between fear and fascination, friend and foe.
Sharks on a Plane
In 2019, a Boeing assisted military research project was launched into the aerodynamic properties of the mako shark- the fastest known species- and how the properties of its scales could be adapted to build quicker planes. In typical military industrial complex fashion, this project has found a home in the revenue generating commercial flight industry.
In May 2021, Lufthansa announced that it was fitting its entire Boeing 777F fleet with Sharkskin Technology, branded: AeroSHARK. AeroSHARK is a film applied to the surface of an aircraft, resembling the fine structure of a shark’s skin. Lasers create a pattern of grooves in the top layer of the aircraft’s paint, each around 50 micrometres big and intended to reduce the friction between the aircraft and the air while flying. In simple terms, due to the lower friction, the aircraft doesn’t need to work as hard to fly, leading to fuel savings. According to Lufthansa, the technology will reduce an aircraft’s drag by 1%. Across the fleet of ten Boeing 777F aircraft, the airline believes that it will save around 3,700 tons of jet fuel each year; in turn, leading to a reduction of CO2 emissions by approximately 11,700 tonnes. This would be comparable to cancelling 48 freight flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai.
Mako shark-inspired tech employed on new Lufthansa planes
Suicide Shark Bombers?
In what sounds like a Sharknado movie franchise plotline left on the cutting room floor, the American military has repeatedly tried to jimmy rig sharks as kamikaze suicide bombers. In the 1950s, project ‘Head Gear’ attempted, and ultimately failed, to use electrodes to manipulate the swimming patterns of sharks to deliver bombs to specified targets.
In recent more geopolitically-delicate times, an underwater drone called ‘GhostSwimmer’, which is designed to look and move like a shark, is a key component of the Navy’s ‘biomimicry’ Silent NEMO project. Created to improve naval reconnaissance methods, ‘Ghostswimmer’ can be controlled remotely via a 500-foot tether, or swim independently, periodically returning to the surface to communicate. Complete with dorsal and pectoral fins, the robofish is stealthy too: It looks like a fish and moves like a fish, and, like other underwater vehicles, is difficult to spot even if you know to look for it.
‘Ghostswimmer’ undergoes testing and training
Encounters
While military intrigue has persisted as to how sharks could be utilised for tactical means, evidence of defense training for recruits on encounters with one of the animals is sparse. This is not necessarily surprising, given that encounters between sharks and humans are rare, and encounters between sharks and sailors even more so. In modern times however, Navy SEAL training off San Clemente Island in Los Angeles county includes a night swim off the islands shore, which is a breeding ground for sharks- in particular the great white. Before trainees enter the water, their instructors explain all the different breeds of sharks they may see, what their strengths and weaknesses are, their swimming patterns and any other useful information the SEALs might need. After they learn the traits of each species, the men are then taught to stand their ground as the only option to protect themselves in the case of an attack. Thus far no records have been released of any deadly encounters from this exercise that more so serves as a psychological, rather than practical, test.
Navy SEALs in training land on San Clemente Island, California
Repellents
In 1943, the navy set out to develop a shark repellent device known as the life jacket shark repellent compound packet; it was made of black dye, decomposing shark flesh, and ammonium acetate, and was meant to be deployed by a floating sailor from a pocket kept in his flotation vest. The plume of noxious odors and dark color was supposed to shield the swimmer from attack. Despite research and development efforts, there is no recorded evidence of the repellent life jacket every being successfully deployed against an attacking shark. In addition, there is no evidence that the Indianapolis had any of the life jackets on board as part of its life saving equipment. What’s more the jackets were likely designed to defend a man from an encounter with a single shark, and would have provided scant protection to the sailors drifting slowly in the middle of the South Pacific, surrounded on all sides. Since then many ‘eureka-moments’ have been proclaimed of a new successful shark repellent, but eight decades on there is still no widely used product for US military personnel, or water users more generally. But all available evidence would suggest that experiments with repellents and other shark-related science and tech are far from over.
World War II-era Shark Repellent from US army supplies