Kapitan
11-03-06, 09:07 AM
Teaching and old sea dog new tricks
The question that baffles almost all nuclear navies today is how well could their submarines cope against an obsolete diesel submarine.
The Royal navy for the past seven years has been all nuclear, its last class of diesel submarines the upholder class were sold to Canada as the Victoria class.
The Royal Navy of today is a modern fighting force capable of being anywhere at any time, it has a fleet of 10 nuclear submarines ready to go at a moments notice, with many on patrol right this moment.
But in recent months the Royal Navy has been growing anxious about what its submarines are capable of LT John Wiggam from HMS Torbay was quoted to say “We don’t know the capabilities of these 3rd world submarines.”
It is indeed true that diesel submarines are far quieter than their nuclear counterparts and are far cheaper to run, and are now easily acquirable by many nations rich and poor and also now terrorist groups.
The Royal Navy has decided to follow suite with the United States Navy and hire in a diesel submarine to practice with the active fleet in a series of war games lasting one year.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/732/02hmsnx3.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=02hmsnx3.jpg)
The submarine itself is today a decommissioned museum exhibit in barrow and Furness, she served with distinction in the Falklands campaign and is named HMS Onyx.
The Royal navy plans to re commission her at a cost of £42 million, work is scheduled to star in may 2007 and the submarine will be relaunched after safety checks and ultra sound is completed on her hull.
The Oberon class was first laid down in 1962 a follow on to the porpoise class they served the Royal Navy well until the last submarine was decommissioned in 1992, HMS Onyx is the only Oberon class to hold battle honours as in 1982 she conducted secret surveillance of both the Falklands islands and the argentine coast line.
It is hoped that HMS Onyx will remain a test platform for the royal navy for at least three more years however the Royal Navy will not comment further on the issue.
The question that baffles almost all nuclear navies today is how well could their submarines cope against an obsolete diesel submarine.
The Royal navy for the past seven years has been all nuclear, its last class of diesel submarines the upholder class were sold to Canada as the Victoria class.
The Royal Navy of today is a modern fighting force capable of being anywhere at any time, it has a fleet of 10 nuclear submarines ready to go at a moments notice, with many on patrol right this moment.
But in recent months the Royal Navy has been growing anxious about what its submarines are capable of LT John Wiggam from HMS Torbay was quoted to say “We don’t know the capabilities of these 3rd world submarines.”
It is indeed true that diesel submarines are far quieter than their nuclear counterparts and are far cheaper to run, and are now easily acquirable by many nations rich and poor and also now terrorist groups.
The Royal Navy has decided to follow suite with the United States Navy and hire in a diesel submarine to practice with the active fleet in a series of war games lasting one year.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/732/02hmsnx3.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=02hmsnx3.jpg)
The submarine itself is today a decommissioned museum exhibit in barrow and Furness, she served with distinction in the Falklands campaign and is named HMS Onyx.
The Royal navy plans to re commission her at a cost of £42 million, work is scheduled to star in may 2007 and the submarine will be relaunched after safety checks and ultra sound is completed on her hull.
The Oberon class was first laid down in 1962 a follow on to the porpoise class they served the Royal Navy well until the last submarine was decommissioned in 1992, HMS Onyx is the only Oberon class to hold battle honours as in 1982 she conducted secret surveillance of both the Falklands islands and the argentine coast line.
It is hoped that HMS Onyx will remain a test platform for the royal navy for at least three more years however the Royal Navy will not comment further on the issue.