Posted on 08/31/2007 11:21:11 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Dont be so sure about that, friend. These are quiet machines.
The best defense is a good offense. We should probably make a pre-emptive nuclear strike on China right now.
The Argentinians forced their hand on that one. When the South American fleet split up, the Brits had to make a decision.
Your son is right to be very concerned about Chinese diesels.
The Navy is wrong, IMHO, in not at least having a minimal diesel boat program.
Don’t forget the hand-cranked ‘Turtle’ of the US Revolutionary War... She would have been successful if the inventor had known that the Brits were copper cladding the bottoms of their hulls.
Diesels are great if you’re fighting in your home waters. However, nearly useless if you have to cross half the world to get at your enemies like we do. Thats the real reason we use nukes.
5 Knots? That’s really not much to brag about, and you will never ever make a diesel sub as quiet as a nuke, moving parts make noise, and we can hear you when the pistons pump from so far away it will make you sick to think about it.
>>But I think the authors own bias comes through with the repeated assertions that nuc subs can’t operate effectively in ‘shallow waters’.
>>We’ve been doing that very effectively for half a century in the Med, for just one glaring example of the author’s bias.
For a slightly higher-risk example, the Sea of Okhotsk comes to mind.
You think nucs don’t have moving parts?
Yup. The only reason a nuke ever has to surface ultimately is for food
BTW, 5 knots is irrelevant, if no one knows you’re there.
The famed “catapillar” drive in the hunt for red october is the real shiznit! ;0) L0L
Yes. Some of the article may be correct but, all in all it’s not very credible sounding.
Not really, if trying to keep up with a sub going much faster, V=D/T. It’s really that simple, the only way to trail and attack a nuke sub is to keep up, you just can’t without giving away your position.
Now THAT had no moving parts.
I hear tell that the UK Astute class of Nuke is quieter than - or as quiet as - the top-of-the-range German Diesel Dolphin-class.
With stealth-tech converging between Nuke and Diesel I think the real advantages of Diesel are numbers and price - as opposed to speed, capacity and endurance.
L0L those crafty russkies!
That’s not how DBs operate.....they quietly get on station and wait to attack when a noisier enemy comes into range. It doesn’t matter really how long it takes them to get into position, either. Again, the DB’s greatest advantage is that no one knows it’s there.
IIRC A human powered sub was used, unsuccessfully, in NY harbor against a British warship, during the Revolution.
That would be interesting....
But the greatest vulnerability with any nuc boat will always be that it has a belly FULL of rotating mechanical machinery...hundreds of pumps and motors, just waiting to make a noise transient. Even with the best, most modern sound isolation technology, I don’t see how that can compete with a submerged diesel on battery, where all you have running is the electric motor (very quiet), maybe some pumps for shaft sealing water, and ventillation fans.
Of course all the technology in the world is useless without a highly trained professional crew, and on that level, the US has no equal.
USS Phoenix (CL-46), a Brooklyn-class light cruiser, was the 3rd Phoenix of the United States Navy. After World War II the ship was transferred to Argentina in 1951 and became known as the General Belgrano. General Belgrano was sunk during the Falklands War in 1982 by HMS Conqueror.
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