Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Papa: Russia's Hot Rod Submarine was a Speed Demon
National Interest ^ | 16 May 2020 | Caleb Larson

Posted on 05/16/2020 7:37:50 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

The K-222 had an interesting design feature that made it possibly the world’s fastest submarine.

The K-222’s top speed was just over 51 miles, or about 82 kilometers, per hour—making the K-222 possibly the fastest submarine ever, and plenty fast to catch surface ships. There was a drawback though: the K-222 was really loud.

Though the K-222 was powered by two nuclear reactors, which are typically a quiet propulsion design, the sub’s propeller caused a great deal of cavitation—a phenomenon in which small bubbles form along the edge of a propeller and cause noise.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: 51mph
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 last
To: wita

Did you know that modern subs are faster underwater than they run on the surface?


41 posted on 05/17/2020 6:26:35 AM PDT by Mount Athos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos
How fast are they? That’s classified

Our boats have a speed "in excess of 20 knots", to quote Admiral Hyman Rickover. No comment on which subs I've been on or which subs from other navies I've heard (or seen), except that if you were anywhere within a large radius of Alpha or Papa you definitely heard them.

42 posted on 05/17/2020 6:36:54 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: RedEyeJack

I have ridden out a typhoon in the Westpac on board a flat bottomed LPD.
Got a broken leg during that ride.


43 posted on 05/17/2020 6:42:58 AM PDT by ExSafecracker (Hey media. . . thats President Trump to you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: xrmusn

“the ‘strap ins’, used to have to strap oneself into the chair while sitting radio circuits.”

A sad event that I remember.
Thinking the crew were looking forward to a nice time in Australia and perhaps some interesting notes in a logbook.
Sad.

“On 8 January 2005, the Los Angeles-class submarine USS San Francisco, while underway and submerged, collided with an undersea seamount about 350 miles (560 km) south of Guam in the Marianas Islands. One of her sailors, Machinist mate 2nd Class (MM2(SS)) Joseph Allen Ashley, of Akron, Ohio, died from the injuries he suffered in the collision. This happened while San Francisco was on a high-speed voyage to visit Brisbane, Australia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_submarine_incidents_since_2000#USS_San_Francisco_collision_with_undersea_terrain


44 posted on 05/17/2020 6:49:18 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: RedEyeJack

Yea, it became a regular thing after a while...We were mostly ‘running from’ them but the prevailing seas were there.

Remember many a time pulling out of Olangapo after a night of hoisting ‘green’ San Miguels...

I was on an APA (Henrico #45) 57-60 and had gotten orders to the Terrell County (LST-1157) ( a ‘newer’ larger one) in 1960.

We were leaving San Diego and out on the crypto ‘weather deck’ and spotted the LSTs leaving, we were lumbering along and when the LSTs hit the breakwater and started tossing and turning, I began to wonder if I had made the right choice.

Two plus years of ‘floating’ around Westpac, HP’ed in Yoko, made up for all the foibles involved....


45 posted on 05/17/2020 6:57:53 AM PDT by xrmusn (6/98"HRC is the Grandmother that lures Hansel & Gretel to the pot")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: xrmusn

Before I was transferred to Subic, I lived in Manila....... San Miguel Village. All my neighbors were managers at the San Miguel brewery.


46 posted on 05/17/2020 7:07:15 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: IronJack

“What makes those speeds so hard for the crews to endure?”

Shock and sudden velocity changes. As the boat tries to push through waves and water the boat shudders and that shuddering can send significant shock waves through the vessel or change the vessels velocity instantly. Those shocks waves and the ship’s velocity changes can break bones or throw people around. It’s like hitting a wall, breaking the wall, and continuing on. It can also be really loud. It’s not something you sleep through.


47 posted on 05/17/2020 7:16:06 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: mad_as_he$$

Actually if you drive faster on a wash boarded road it will smooth the ride out. I do it all the time in the outback.
As usual you missed the point.

`````
No I did not - you equate driving vehicle down some outback road to a ship going full bore through heavy seas as if there is no difference. The ride does not smooth out on a ship!


48 posted on 05/17/2020 7:29:58 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: PIF

It was your original analogy.


49 posted on 05/17/2020 7:46:29 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: mad_as_he$$

Which you completely misunderstood.


50 posted on 05/17/2020 7:59:00 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: DUMBGRUNT

There is no market for loud submarines. Nice try Boris.


51 posted on 05/17/2020 8:05:54 AM PDT by Salvavida
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mariner
Look, I wasn't implying anything about the fortitude of the crews or the build of the ships. It was a legitimate question about what stresses the crew and ship endured that made those speeds unsustainable.

I know all about the sectional density of water and how hard it can feel when you slam into a wave at high speed. But I've always envisioned those warships as such huge edifices that the shocks a smaller craft would experience would just be a gnat on an elephant to them.

Apparently I was wrong. Sorrrrrrrrrrrry.

52 posted on 05/17/2020 8:31:11 AM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Mount Athos

I did not. I suspect they spend more time submerged than wartime subs of yesteryear. Not having the same restrictions on propulsion battery life and noise making. Diesel engines had to breath.


53 posted on 05/18/2020 1:06:04 AM PDT by wita (Always and forever, under oath in defense of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson