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 ...
A torpedo is faster
it’s normal for subs to be faster than surface ships.
Counter intuitive but they go through water easier even though the ship just rides on top
true
i think they were thinking of both ability to pursue and get into a position to launch at a number of targets
other subs may have not been able to keep up, or take way too long to finally get there, per mission spec
but if you’re gonna wake everyone up on the way to get there, well you’re a huge blaring target yourself :)
Yeah they don't waste energy kicking up all those waves and foam and spray.
Little deuce nuke.
Ah! But Toshiba fixed that noisy propeller for them. They sold them (or gave them) our plans and machinery for a super quiet prop like we had on our subs.
Thanks, Toshiba. Hope you don’t choke on the money.
It cannot outrun sonar and the MK-48 torpedo.
Thus only one made.
**Yeah they don’t waste energy kicking up all those waves and foam and spray**
Well, I don’t know much about watercraft in general, but a propeller on either is pushing against a liquid. Neither is putting tires to asphalt. The sub doesn’t have to deal much with headwinds or crosswinds, so I assume that helps efficiency.
There are some strong currents though i.e. Gulf stream, Catalina current.
Hey! That was pretty good!
I seem to remember that the Russians got hold of a bad prop design, stolen from the US by way of a sting operation (to catch a spy selling secrets). I wonder if this was it.
“it’s normal for subs to be faster than surface ships”
There is not a vessel in the world that can outrun a CVN at sea. Our Nimitz class can sustain 40+ knots for as long as the crew can stand it. I’ve personally witnessed the old USS Enterprise throwing a rooster tail aft at about 48 knots.
They simply haul ass. 100,000 tons at a time.
While there are a few modern subs that can approach 40 knots, there’s more DDGs that can achieve the same speeds. But on the surface, in anything smaller than a CVN, any speed over 30knots is BRUTAL and the crew cannot endure more than a few hours. Except for Subs.
Long transit speeds are 16-18 knots. Patrol speeds rarely exceed 20.
And most subs cruise at less than 15 to avoid detection, unless they have to keep up with the CVN.
So, no, it’s uncommon for a sub to be faster than surface ships.
Ask ETCM, he knows.
Alpha Class subs
“They were extremely fast , very deep diving and caused many a sleepless night for our sonar men. It would always be a good idea to know exactly where the Alpha boats were at any given time.”
When I was at sea in the 80s, there was a sitrep broadcast every 6 hours with the precise position of every Soviet sub in their fleet. If one was unaccounted for, a general alert went out to the entire fleet to be on the “lookout”.
True, but don’t both boats have that problem? Surface ships may have hulls designed for hydrodynamics, but their above water structures are not very sleek.
I think I read where convoys (when not in danger of attack) followed inline with other ships to take advantage of the current created by the lead ship.
I’m familiar with the Army term DATs - for my Friends in the Navy, is a submariner an underwater DAT?
What makes those speeds so hard for the crews to endure?
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