Akula-II Vs. Seawolf:Stealth Comparison

Hello all nuclear sub captains,

Just a few days ago I purchased both Sub Command and Dangerous Waters,and I am getting the bigger and bigger fan of those awesome and sophisticated naval sims.

I decided to play Sub Command for some time before transferring completely to Dangerous Waters.First,I was going a Seawolf campaign and passed as far as Akula Port Egress mission.

So my observations on SSN-21 Seawolf - the sub is fast and agile but it surely lacks stealth.I noticed that in Severomorsk mission where you have to land a SEAL team ashore.I was going this mission several times,until completed eventually,and all the time I was having troubles with submarine stealth,no matter what speed or depth was set.Seawolf was successfully detected and atacked by Victor-III and various anti-submarine frigates going at 15 and 5 knot speed,at periscope and 300,400,500 feet depth.

Afterwards I started an Akula-II campaign,begining with commando deployment mission,identical by it's scenario to a Severomorsk one in a Seawolf campaign.I was driving my Akula-II Gepard at a periscope depth and speed of 15 knots constantly as far as commando drop off point at the U.S. coast line,was never detected,dropped off commando group,and at the same cruising depth and speed returned to exit point without being detected also.Mission was done flawlessly.

So,I am jumping to conclusion,that there are two reasons of that:

1.Commando deployment mission in Akula-II campaign is less protected by U.S. submarine and coastal guard escorts.

2.Akula-II is a more sophisticated submarine then Seawolf,according to stealth criteria,at least in game.This submarine does not have such state of the art control stations,but it's stealth abilities are at a very high level.

I am playing stock Sub Command,latest patched without any mods.

What are your experiences about stealth while driving both those great subs,captains?Have you noticed any advantages or disadvantages also?

I would be glad to read all your comments on this topic.

Good Luck everybody

[Kapitan]

You really need all the mods in order to enjoy sub command.

The akula has the edge in terms of weapons capibilities and has the same diving depth the seawolf has and similar speeds, but it is noiser (about same as 688i), the akulas are smaller and more suited to coastal and under ice missions than a seawolf.

Seawolf is good for open ocean and blue water deployments get it in brown water its not quite effective, towed array cannot be used properly and its visible from both the air and surface ships hence why alot of nations who have shallows such as iran use smaller diesel boats.

I havnt played the mission in a long time but i know the first two missions are easy and it gradualy gets harder as you go along, akula is not as sophisticated as a seawolf or 688i however its detection range is on par with seawolf but you need really good eyesight to see the little mount on the sonar display screen.

In the real life gepard and also now vepr and some other akulas and new builds they have waterfall displays making them almost en par to all western submarines in terms of detection capibility, akula is now over 20 years old therefore its rapidly becoming obsolete, and theres plenty of submarines out there that are fully capible of taking them out including the ageing kilos with the right skipper.

I have driven akulas since SC came out and taken it over to DW i find them easier to handle they react quicker and control surfaces are alot easier than a seawolf or 688i, if you took a SSN 21 and akula and raced them the akula would be at 35knots before the seawolf.

Dont forget the akula is only some 320 feet long the SSN21 is around 370 feet the seawolf also wieghs a whopping 12,000 tonne the akula 9,500tonne its lighter and more agile and more hydrodynamic than a seawolf and has verying capibilities such as less crew longer deployments if needed the reactor is only 25,000shp to get you to around 35 knots, the scope goes to 16x magnification seawolf only does 8x

I find the akula a great submarine to command and i have personally be onboard three of them in real life and they are not small boats! (even the kilos are fairly large)

the trouble with seawolf is and alot of people find this is that the submarine is too sophisticated to understand its arrays wepaonary and read outs is all virtual touch screens which makes it much more complex to handle here in the akula is one button for this that and everything.

If your an excellent skipper in any platform stick with it SFDuke is an excellent seawolf skipper you try and put him in my boat he doesnt have a clue, and vice versa.

A weakness i find in the akula is that the submarine can be noisey when doing sprint and drift and intermediate depths sometimes you forget your cavitation speed at say 150m and you really screw up, ive had plenty of cases where i have tracked other submarines without them knowing so far ive tracked sucsessfully.

British vangaud class
British trafalgar class
British oberon class
American 688 and 688i
American ohio class four diffrent ones
Chinese xia
Chinese han
Aussie collins class

many many more i generaly do under ice and tracking missions, therefore i rarely come to combat i prefer trying to find some one without them knowing following them and then if needed or orderd blowing them up.

Thanks for great explanation,Kapitan.The longer I play,the bigger fan of Akula-II I am getting.Already in the middle of stock campain without being attacked or even detected a single time!And I also noticed that Akula's sonar is more sensitive.

[Kapitan]

It is to a point akulas range is 16,000 yards comftable it can go twice that but you wont see squat on the display screen the read will be too small hence why it is classified as inferior untill now hehe

Akula has also got a very stable,not jumpy,rotating narrowband sonar display.It's much easier to pick up display signature in Akula,then in Seawolf.Choice of weapons is also much wider.ESM and Radio antennas are also more durable,unlike ones in Seawolf.

In general,it seems that driving Akula you are absolutely free in your actions,sub extremely reliable,masts,antennas do not fail.You don't have to think "what will happen if".The best sub in game,I think.And also the most beautiful one.

[Kapitan]

As an experianced akula diver you will find that the masts and towed array are prone to failure just as easily as the 688i or seawolf, however the akula is smaller than a seawolf and displaces 2,000 tonne less and carrys less crew.

the akulas were built for under ice and blue water operations and to aid SSGN movements (oscar echo and julliette class's) in order to smash an american battle group to bits, today they are multi role platforms and are used to do the same missions the 688i's do.

After personally touring 3 such submarines in real life i can quite honestly say yes id rather be in a akula that a british or american submarine simply because of space.

in the game you will find that the seawolf out performs the akula in target detection capibility but to cover that the akula makes up for it in weapon versatility, if you use the correct weapons the correct way and use correct tactics you can kill a seawolf before he can get within any firing range dont forget his torpedos have a max range of 27 miles he will more than likely come and close to around 10 miles to shoot, so if you pick him up at 15 miles and fire 3 SS-N-16 stallions he is pretty much dead.