color of submarine

[jack33]

why is the color of submarines below the water line, red

[MR. Wood]

Anti Corrosion paint they used many colors over the years red was cheeper

[ETR3(SS)]

Not just below the water line, but below the drip line. Half the hull is black to make it harder to see from the surface while the other half was a special paint designed to preserve the hull and prevent the growth of marine life.

[jack33]

Thank´s

[Capt Jack Harkness]

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

Not just below the water line, but below the drip line. Half the hull is black to make it harder to see from the surface while the other half was a special paint designed to preserve the hull and prevent the growth of marine life.

I've always wondered about that... Does the black work better when running deep? A few other countries have painted their diesel boats shades of blue or green for shallow running.

[Bubblehead Nuke]

Originally Posted by Capt Jack Harkness

I've always wondered about that... Does the black work better when running deep? A few other countries have painted their diesel boats shades of blue or green for shallow running.

It is based on your operating environment. It has to do with operating in shallow waters when performing periscope or recharging evolutions.

As USN boats are going to be primarily open ocean (i.e. blue water navy) they are painted black. Countries that operate primarily in the littoral environment may paint the topside with a color more matching to the seafloor of their operating areas.

Think about looking down from a ships conning tower or a plane. You are trying to limit contrasting with the background to limit visual identification.

Once you go below a certain depth you could paint the hull bright pink and you would not be able to visually see it.

[The Bandit]

Similar things were done in WW2 if you look at the later war grey paint schemes designed to be harder to spot on the surface and at shallow depth. Similar steps were taken with the early SSBNs which deployed to the Med on a regular basis.

[Swordsman422]

I've seen on navsource Permit-class boats sitting in drydock with a fresh coat of zinc chromate green vice red, and I think the Skipjacks might have been painted grey-over-black at some point. Would be interesting to see these schemes added to the game.

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by Swordsman422

I've seen on navsource Permit-class boats sitting in drydock with a fresh coat of zinc chromate green vice red, and I think the Skipjacks might have been painted grey-over-black at some point. Would be interesting to see these schemes added to the game.

The green was either marine growth (it does still happen) or primer. As for the grey on Skipjack, could also be primer or faded black paint.

[ET2SN]

I think some Lantfleet (US east coast) boats were painted over-all black back in the 60's and 70's.
Under-hull paint really depends on where the sub was over hauled and where it was home ported.
Unfortunately, I had a lot of experience seeing boats in the Pearl Harbor shipyard back in the 90's but they got a somewhat unique paint job:

- Black above the normal water line.

- Red on the lower half of the hull. (for modelers, Testor's Insignia Red is an almost perfect color match, not "hull red" or "red lead")

- "Purple Brown" between the red and black sections (the under water part of the upper half of the hull) as well as the tops of the stern planes. (for modelers, a 50/50 mix of Testor's Insignia Red and Insignia Blue looks about right)

The "purple brown" paint was unique to Pearl Harbor subs. You also didn't want to be anywhere near the dry dock when it was being sprayed, it was highly toxic even after it dried. Both the red and "purple" paints were used to combat the more aggressive sea growth on the hull in the warmer waters.

San Diego boats also used the same red, as I recall, but the "purple" might or might not have been used. It probably depended on where the boat was painted the last time.

I don't recall seeing green primer below the water line on US subs. Green primer was just generic Navy primer that the crew could paint on the hull (vs shipyard painters).

If you see color pics of a sub in dry dock, that gray stuff is dried out hull growth and its nasty to remove.

(As a bonus- If you're planning to build a model of a 688, keep in mind that 688's tie up to the pier at a 2 degree up angle. That angle also marks the "official" water line on the hull- including the upper rudder. If you want to be authentic when it comes time to paint it, be ready for a headache. That angle makes it a bear when you mask off the hull for the black top coat, especially aft of the engine room hatch where the hull starts to taper in. )

[-Pv-]

Below a certain depth, color is irrelevant since unlike the sim, there are no cameras watching you and little or no light.

As mentioned, the colors used on diff parts of the boat are for near surface human/infrared visibility and maintenance reasons.
-Pv-

[ET2SN]

That reminds me of one source of mystery that's easily explained:

On modern US sub models you may notice an odd array of, well, something between the stern planes and the rudders. It has nothing to do with sonar or any other sensor. They are called "zincs" or sacrificial anodes.
All ships have to use what is known as a floating ground for electric systems. That, coupled with how steel reacts with salt water is the main reason why the hull below the water line HAS to be painted- the steel HAS to be isolated from the water or it will rust, heavily.
A steel hull will also generate its own static electric charge as it moves through the water, that charge can cause the hull to become magnetized as well as speed up rusting.

Zincs are placed on the hull because paint isn't perfect, it wears thin or chips off, and I guess the easiest way to describe what zincs do is to say that they look a lot more tasty to the sea water than the steel hull. Another way to think of it is to imagine yourself as the sea water (and you're always hungry), the hull as a plate of fried liver and onions, and the zincs as a slice of cherry pie.
Which one will you try to eat first?

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

That reminds me of one source of mystery that's easily explained:

On modern US sub models you may notice an odd array of, well, something between the stern planes and the rudders. It has nothing to do with sonar or any other sensor. They are called "zincs" or sacrificial anodes.
All ships have to use what is known as a floating ground for electric systems. That, coupled with how steel reacts with salt water is the main reason why the hull below the water line HAS to be painted- the steel HAS to be isolated from the water or it will rust, heavily.
A steel hull will also generate its own static electric charge as it moves through the water, that charge can cause the hull to become magnetized as well as speed up rusting.

Zincs are placed on the hull because paint isn't perfect, it wears thin or chips off, and I guess the easiest way to describe what zincs do is to say that they look a lot more tasty to the sea water than the steel hull. Another way to think of it is to imagine yourself as the sea water (and you're always hungry), the hull as a plate of fried liver and onions, and the zincs as a slice of cherry pie.
Which one will you try to eat first?

I said it on the Steam forums and I'll say it here too. I think I've replaced every zinc in the superstructure on the KY.

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

I said it on the Steam forums and I'll say it here too. I think I've replaced every zinc in the superstructure on the KY.

Ahh, a fellow sail rat.

The sail on the Barbel was a hoot to crawl. Almost all of it was accessible and that sucka was HUGE. On the inside it was like having your own 30 foot tall jungle gym.

[MR_AUS]

The red paint was the anti-fouling paint that contained a compound known as Tributyltin (TBT).
TBT based anti-fouling almost always came in red as the chemicals in the paint would give it a red colour. The paint could be obtained in other shades, mainly black, blue or green. Usually the non-red based versions were not as good as preventing fouling.

TBT based anti-fouling was banned from use in the early to mid 90s in Australia as far as I can recall, and probably every where else in the world because of its toxic properties that would leech into the water and marine life.

I worked as a shipwrights hand in a boat yard (private company) and we had to stop using this paint, but when our boatyard got the contract to do some maintenance on some Navy work boats, the Navy would supply the anti-fouling paints from their own stores (we would source all other paints and materials). 50% of the time the paint was red, and 50% of the time it was black. According to the Navy guy who would drop it off, the black anti-fouling was surplus from the submarines. The black stuff was required to be painted on in double the application coats as the red as it did not last as long.

Quite often, our foreman would order more of the TBT based anti-fouling from the Navy guys for the job (they supplied it and paid for it), because it was not available to be bought as it was banned. I suppose the Navy was exempt. The foreman would then get us to paint our boat yard work boats with "the good stuff", the left over paint. Our boats would resist fouling for 3 to 4 times longer than other boats with regular non TBT based anti-fouling.

Im sure since then, the improvements in anti-fouling paint have improved and it would be non TBT based. This would mean that the paint could be any colour, and that is why subs and surface ships almost always have black anti-fouling now (for low visibility too).