Please allow me to resurrect this thread with an update on my part. As I've said, I've been "writing" (more like documenting myself) a war/political thriller novel based on modern submarines for the past two years.
I havent have much time to dedicate to it, had to take looooong brakes and got more systematic on my approach, I've been building my fictitional fleet from scratch, and currently I'm trying to choose the best submarines for it. I've shortlisted the Japanese Soryu class, the Dolphin-II and yes, the 636.1 Kilos (believe it or not acquiring each of these types makes sense in-universe). I would really, really love to consider the Akula-III's, they are my favourite SSN's (although the Astutes are growing on me) but the conflict I'm portrying takes place in the Mediterranean littoral areas,and nuclear subs are at a significant disadvantage there. My navy will be figthing against a NATO-style navy equipped with Scorpene-style subs (AIPs).
I've been "asking around" trying to get more info on the newest Kilos (636.1) but although I learned a lot, such as that they have the pantry besides the Kitchen, not on a lower level like the french subs do (I love this aspect of french subs) there's still so much I don't know.
For example, do the 636's crew have to manually check the acid-lead batteries as they do in the 877's (at least the Indian and Iranian Kilos do it that way) crawling on those sliding thinggies??
Do the Kilos have a watermaker? The indian sailors I watched said they don't wash ever during missions and the shower had a lock
Do the 636 Kilos have a mess for the crew, or they eat on their cabins as in the 877's? I know the Lada does, and it's not bigger than the Kilo and in a russian 636 documentary I saw they showed a mock mess room in the shipyard where they built the subs, but I don't speak russian and the auto translated captions are horrible
Thank you thank you thank you in advance
