Russia's Alfa Class Sub Could Out Run & Out Dive Anything (But Had a Fatal Flaw)
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...anything-22121
Quote:
|
The alfa sure came as a shock to the NATO navies, who were used to being the kings of the sea, makes you wonder where Russian submarine tech would be if they didn't have the severe cutbacks they did after the fall of the USSR.
I have a couple questions for the subsim community about the Russian Titanium hulled boats.: First off, I read an article once about how the CIA found out and were shocked that the Alfa hull was made of titanium. But K-222, the only papa class sub, had a titanium hull and was commissioned almost 4 years before the first alfa test bed. How long was it before NATO learned K-222 had a titanium hull? Secondly, I've heard stories that some of the alfa hulls were suffering from metal fatigue after diving deep, and that this coupled with the maintenance issues with the reactor is what caused them to be decommissioned and scrapped. Can anybody confirm this? Thirdly, if the above is true, what changes were made to the Sierra class that made them more durable? They have a deeper test depth then the Alfa, and they have already exceeded the life of the alfa with no indication of them being decommissioned soon. Heck, one was involved in a collision with a LA class sub that forced the 688's early decommissioning and the sierra got away with a 4 month dry dock visit and didn't look back. |
Good questions speed150mph and as for the Alpha class even the Russians have to go by budgets and the cost was just too much for what they would get in the end. Look how long it took to finish what they started way back in 1993.
https://russianmilitaryanalysis.word...nhills/page/2/ Quote:
Quote:
The future of undersea warfare is already available ... Like Sputnik the USA is far behind. We need to build submarine drone tenders and we need to build them soon in order to counter the Soviet threat of an Arctic fleet of Russian drones that could be controlled by satellites. https://russianmilitaryanalysis.word...nhills/page/2/ Quote:
|
Is a good article, in the end, the Lyra project was the development platform for the new Yasen class submarines, highly automated and with a small crew.
|
Quote:
|
Hinrich, thanks for confirming that, but there was a second part to the question. If the hulls were cracking on the alfas from fatigue, then what changes were made to the design for the Sierra class subs that afforded them a deeper test depth, and have extended their life to the point where, aside from the one that collided with the Baton Rouge, none have required extensive hull repairs?
And obviously they believed they solved the issue with the mike class sub, since they upped the test depth to over 1000 meters and did not seem concerned to operate her at extreme depths. |
Come on Neal we both know the picture is a project 971 Akula, and we both know the 705's we rapid noisy at high speed and had some issues being early boats with their reactors being lead bismuth instead of pressurised water.
National interest clearly cant tell the difference. |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:56 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.