MH370

  GROK: The hypothetical cheapest cost for a confined 30 km² AUV magnetic-only (mag-only) swarm search, accepting the claimed WSPR-derived location precision (e.g., around ~29°S 100°E at ~3,750–4,000 m depth in the southern Indian Ocean per Richard Godfrey’s analyses), would likely fall in the range of roughly US$1.5–4 million. This is a very small area compared to prior MH370 searches (which covered tens or hundreds of thousands of km²). The dominant expenses are vessel mobilization/transit to this remote location and the full operational day rates for deep-water AUV assets— not the search time itself , which is minimal. Key Assumptions for a Minimal-Cost Operation Area & method : 30 km² box (or equivalent tight search zone) using only magnetometers on AUVs (no side-scan sonar, cameras, or sub-bottom profilers). Mag-only allows potentially wider line spacing than sonar because aircraft wreckage produces a strong ferrous anomaly detectable from greater distances when the AUV ...