Posted on 08/31/2007 11:21:11 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
There was one as far back as 1620 that worked. The byline says this is a senior writer too. Imagine if they had one of the writers who didn’t know what they’re talking about.
“The diesel submarine may be the leading “Cinderella weapon” of the 21st century. It gets no respect in the United States or Russia”
Sarcasm aside, this is a stupidly, wildly unrealistic comment by the article’s author.
Don’t the Brits have a locally-produced variant of the Mk 48?
These Nuke boats will be deploying underwater RPV's to hunt mines & presumably diesel SSK's. Coordinating the attack of diesel SSK's would be difficult given current technology. German & US wolfpack attacks relied on the subs communicating with eachother & a central command via surface radio.
Err,a sub’s diesel operates when she’s on the surface or when she’s snorkelling.It’s batteries run when it’s down there & they are always quieter than your average nuke boat.An average battery can go upto 3 days at slow speed & virtually be undetected.Enough to give any opposing commander sleepless nights.
The 5 Knots I mentioned is to get the maximum endurance,which for a new German sub would be ,
around 25+ days ~ 5 knots.& This endurance is just based on it’s fuel cells,leaving out it’s diesel-battery arrangement.
Well neither of the 2 sub variants the cutaways of which I posted have 8 tubes-they both have 6 each.Both have salvo launch capability & there combat system can handle the guidance/update of upto 8 systems reportedly(torpedo & missile).
They have a torpedo called the Spearfish which has a speed in excess of 60 knots at short range-very similar to the MK-48.Don’t see why they should produce the MK-48.
It’s hard to count tubes from those cut-aways, especially for the ignorant.
6 or 8 in the water at once...that’s a frightening prospect!
Diesel boats, at least engine wise, are far quieter than nucs because submerged they run on their battery, An electric propulsion system produces virtually no machine noise, except the screws, and technology has provided for very quiet propellors.
ASIDE: one of the secrets sent by John Walker to the Soviets was the make up of American subs’ props and screws. The Reds got the Swedes to machine copies and produces what US submariners called the “Walker” class boats.
This worry over diesel boats was the plot of Kelsey Grammer's silly movie Down Periscope. Where he was tasked with penetrating Norfolk with an unmodified WWII fleet boat, still carried deck guns. Silly as the movie was, the premise of alarm about the stealth of diesel electrics was and is real.
Why did the Soviets need the Swedes to do that????I presume they had adequate tech themselves if you are talking about equipment.Besides,wasn’t Sweden wary of the Soviets??
The huge volume of air and space needed for the crew, the air recycling, food, sewage, and other necessities of a manned submarine are a huge impediment.
An "Autonomous Undewater Vehicle" or "Unmanned Undewater Vehicle" can be much more efficient.
See also Unmanned Gliders, which navigate almost silently.
http://www.onr.navy.mil/media/extra/fact_sheets/advanced_underwater_glider.pdf
The tolerances required for the silent props were beyond the crude means of Soviet industry. The Swedes, though they be socialists, will make anyone anything for $$$. The tungsten steel on the 88mm at rounds used by the Wehrmacht came from Sweden. The Bofors 40mm that shot down planes on all sides in WWII made Swedish socialism possible with the payments for its licenses to build.
Well those instances are 60 years old.I have yet to see anything which shows that the Swedes helped the Soviets with their technology,directly or otherwise.Are you referring to Toshiba selling milling equipment to the Soviets in the 80s?
A wire guided torpedo from ~20 miles
I’d heard from some Brit sources that one of the Brit torpedoes was a Mk48 variant, using the proprietary pump drive.
Every ASW guy I've spoken to over the past 20 some years has said D/E's are extremely difficult to detect once they go electric.
been there & done that. in one exercise many, many years ago a canadian D/E captain was giving us fits trying to find him before he got a clear shot. he got us first...
The Taiwan Strait is only 100 miles wide. A dozen D/E's loitering about submerged in such a tight space just waiting for something to come sailing through could present a real problem in a conflict with Taiwan.
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