Posted on 03/31/2014 9:02:57 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Known as the “ninja of the seas,” Japan’s Hakuryu submarine carries enough firepower to knock out an aircraft carrier with a single blow.
But the Type 89 torpedo is not the vessel’s most effective feature in strengthening Japan’s warning and surveillance operations in its waters.
“A submarine’s greatest weapon is stealth,” Maritime Self-Defense Force Capt. Kaoru Yoshida said. “Our mere presence that makes (the enemy think) ‘there might be a powerful submarine out there’ is a deterrent.”
In the National Defense Program Guidelines formulated at the end of last year, Japan decided to increase its submarine fleet from the current 16 vessels to 22 over the next 10 years. A key reason for the increase is Chinese maritime forays, including in areas around the Senkaku Islands claimed by both Japan and China in the East China Sea.
Reporters from several media organizations, including The Asahi Shimbun, were allowed to take a trip aboard a Hakuryu submarine for the first time in late February.
The purpose of allowing access to the submarine was apparently to show that the MSDF can also flex its maritime muscle.
The Hakuryu shown to reporters was the third of the Soryu-class of submarines, which were commissioned from 2009. It has a standard displacement of 2,950 tons and a length of 84 meters.
Before heading out to sea, a “pssh” sound was heard as Capt. Yoshida, 40, gave the order to “begin launch” during a torpedo drill.
Soryu-class submarines can stay submerged longer because they generate energy by mixing fuel with liquid oxygen stored in tanks.
They are more difficult to detect with radar because they extend the air supply tube above the water’s surface far fewer times than the MSDF’s other submarines, which are propelled by batteries when submerged and use diesel engines to recharge the batteries.
A “snorkel” is essential to take in oxygen. But the air supply tubes and periscopes are easily detectable by radar.
“When the snorkel’s up, that’s your best chance to catch a sub,” a P-3C patrol aircraft pilot said.
But the stealth of the Hakuryu submarine comes at a cost in terms of comfort.
The Air-Independent Propulsion engine takes up 10 meters of the length of the submarine’s central section, leaving cramped living quarters for the crew of 65 or so.
The captain’s quarters cover around 3 square meters, while the officers’ quarters have three triple bunk beds to fit nine people in a room.
“It’s tough working in an enclosed space with limited water and air, but I’m motivated to take part in duties that only a few seamen can do,” Lt. Cmdr. Tomoharu Horiuchi, the Hakuryu’s 35-year-old chief engineer, said.
To maintain secrecy, crew members themselves often do not know when they are scheduled to return to their home port.
“We can’t even tell our families when we leave port,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Hayaki Kawai, 31, who has a 10-month-old daughter, said.
By FUMIAKI SONOYAMA/ Staff Writer
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The JMSDF Soryu-class submarines are as state of the art AIP D/E conventional subs as it gets.
But they are not brand new.
The first was launched in 2007 and they have now launched six of them on the way to building ten.
They are very quiet and they do have a good weapons load.
Just the same, they do not have the endurance or the speed of a nuclear submarine and the latest Virginias (US Navy), Astutes (UK) and new Russian Yasen class submarines are also very, very dangerous, and carry a lot more weapons...and are capable of intersepcting high value military tagets on the high seas and keeping up with them...which also makes them good escorts for those high value naval vessels too.
These new AIP DEs though are going to be very dangerous in the littoral waters, at any choke point, or whenver and wherever they can lie in wait for an approaching task force.
Because of their slower submerged speed, they are hard pressed to intercept a transiting task force on the high seas...unless, as I say, they know where one is going to pass and can lie in wait for it.
The long lance did most of it’s damage from the ship launched ones. Had a range of 20,000 yards I believe.
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