Britain launches nuclear sub that can hear a ship from across the Atlantic

this is london ^ | 08.06.07

[george76]

The first of the UK's new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines has been unveiled in Cumbria by the Duchess of Cornwall.

Due to enter service in 2009, BAE Systems' Astute is the most advanced submarine of its kind and comes bristling with the very latest in military technology.

BAE said: "With a radar signature equivalent to a dolphin, it can remain undetected thousands of miles from home and hundreds of metres underwater.

"In the right conditions it can detect the QE2 leaving New York harbour from the English Channel."

its key asset is its stealth. Even with a nuclear reactor and four powerful turbines propelling it through the water, less than one watt of power is radiated, making it incredibly quiet.

Its nuclear reactor means that it will never need to be refuelled in its 25-year lifetime.

The submarine - almost half as big again as the Royal Navy's current fleet of attack boats - is one of three under construction at the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness.

[IonImplantGuru]

... I remember reading one article about the then-new LA class boats. They would leave port with food packages stacked all over the place.

Thus it has ever been on boats (subs, to civilians)!
When we left for patrol, not only was food and other stores packed in every imaginable nook and cranny, but cases of canned foods even paved the passageways ... so you were literally walking on(and sometimes sleeping on) your future meals.
The downside was if you were going somewhere where the lights were off, in berthing and some other areas, and some mess-cook had retrieved a case of whatever since the last time you passed that way, then there could be a sudden 'hole' in your path.
At least they didn't store spuds in the showers like they did in the old diesel boat days!