Defense Focus: Diesel sub wonder weapons

United Press International ^ | Aug. 31, 2007 | MARTIN SIEFF

[DoughtyOne]

Our national policies toward China are suicidal. It baffles me how anyone could fail to realize this.

[chilepepper]

actually, diesel subs would be pretty pathetic.

its the diesel-electric subs you need to worry about!

[mylife]

And the french have devised a way to snorkle while submerged

[SJSAMPLE]

I thought they used a wire-guided Mk48, pre-ADCAP?

[rwa265]

Author bias or not, diesel-electric subs have worried the Navy for some time. See attached.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2004/Aug/Diesel_Submarines.htm

[mylife]

so long as they stay submerged

[Enchante]

"Yeah - a modern nuclear attack submarine sinks a WWII cruiser that was being held together with chewing gum and bailing wire..."

Exactly -- the author writes as though it were some impressive feat..... I would hate to have been in the crew of the obsolete cruiser heading into that encounter....

[Badeye]

Anything in the worlds oceans ‘worry the Navy’.

[mylife]

Diesel Boats Forever

[sukhoi-30mki]

Britain doesn’t have the MK-48.The Conqueror fired British MK-8 torpedoes,though she also had the MK-24 Tigerfish.

[Pyro7480]

From: General Belgrano

At 15:57 on May 2, Conqueror fired three conventional Mk 8 mod 4 torpedoes, each with an 800 lb (363 kg) Torpex warhead, two of which hit the General Belgrano. The Conqueror was also equipped with the newer Mark 24 Tigerfish homing torpedo, but there were doubts about its reliability. The Mk 8 dated back to the 1930s and was not a homing design.

[mylife]

The Mk 48 can operate with or without wire guidance

[Bat_Chemist]

Is that eight torpedo tubes up front??? How many can they fire at once? And at what rate, I wonder...

[blam]

I rode diesel subs in the early 60’s.

[rwa265]

On a personal note, my son is a nuclear reactor operator on a Los Angeles class fast attack submarine. I asked him about the Chinese diesels, expecting him to say they weren’t that big a deal. He said they are very worrisome because they are difficult to detect on radar.

If you don’t want to worry about them, fine. But my son is a lot smarter than I am about these things. If he says they’re something to worry about, I’m glad the Navy is acting on it, at least as long as he’s on a sub.

[Camel Joe]

For every Chi-Com diesel vibrating its way undersea you can rest assured there is a “silent” nuke on its tail ready to strike. You can’t see or hear em but let me tell ya my collectivist friends they are there. We are NOT afraid, that is all!

[mylife]

I never rode diesels. I rode 637s, but I did work on the Bonefish which was a diesel

[mylife]

Collectivist? L0L

[PAR35]

The diesel boats are much quieter. The US needs a couple of dozen for Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean duty.

[rottndog]

And with some of the new fuel cell technologies, it is quite possible that diesel boats can be even quieter than Nukes.

Diesel boats on battery power ARE quieter than Nucs.