That’s a wild idea, and the math is actually fun. First, break it into three parts: coverage, redundancy, and data bandwidth. For coverage, you can use a grid‑search algorithm – each drone gets a hexagon of, say, 200 meters side, so you need roughly 50 drones to hit a 10‑km area. Redundancy is the safety net: because pressure and bio‑fouling kill about 10 % a day, double up so every spot is covered by two drones. That gives you a 90 % confidence that you’ll get a full map before any one dies. For risk, calculate the probability of loss versus the cost per drone. If each unit is $200k, a 10 % chance of losing 10 units is a $200k hit, which is tolerable if the mission pays out in data value. Add a contingency factor – say a 5 % buffer for unforeseen failures. Bandwidth is the last puzzle. Each drone streams 10 Mbps of sensor data. For 50 drones, that’s 500 Mbps, which is a lot for a submarine link. You can compress the data on the fly with a lossless algorithm, or better, use edge‑processing: let the drones do the heavy lifting and only send processed summaries back – maybe 1 Mbps per drone – dropping the load to 50 Mbps, which a modern deep‑sea link can handle. In short: split the area into small squares, double the number for redundancy, accept a 10‑15 % loss risk, and compress or process data on the drone before transmission. That’s the quick playbook.