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View Full Version : Anti aircraft defense for sub ???


stratege1401
09-22-17, 11:30 AM
After reading that article ( http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/6894/have-submarine-launched-anti-aircraft-missiles-finally-come-of-age ) it is clear anti aircraft defense is an asset for survivability . Does the Cold water Team plan to try to implemented this feature ???

-Pv-
09-22-17, 12:09 PM
A few of several posts on this subject:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2490070&postcount=5
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2490491&postcount=13
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2496364&postcount=92
-Pv-

thereddaikon
09-22-17, 12:09 PM
Everything I have heard so far is that it is not expected to be implemented. Even if navies are starting to field sub launched SAMs the game wont necessarily have them. Remember Cold Waters covers the 60's and 80's. Nobody was deploying SAMs on subs at the time.

Swordsman422
09-22-17, 03:17 PM
You want to defend against aircraft, go deep, use your layers, avoid the aircraft patrol patterns, and learn when to creep and when to haul mail.

In the real world, post war submarines didn't carry AAA or MANPADS because they would have required surfacing to use. If you are on the surface, you are already having a bad, bad day.

stratege1401
09-22-17, 03:53 PM
In 1972-1974, SLAM was fitted to HMS Aeneas for trials and (alledgedly) two German-built Israeli boats.

There is a diagram in Janes Weapon Systems from 1974 that shows SLAM's use as an anti-ship weapon, rather than as a SAM.

chillbro baggins
09-22-17, 04:35 PM
I guess you could've sent somebody out on deck with a Stinger in the era the game is set. And in WWII there were specialized flak u-boats, but after that air defense has been pretty much "don't be seen". If you've screwed up bad enough in a modern-ish submarine to have to fight an aircraft, shooting back is the least of your worries.

The Bandit
09-22-17, 09:40 PM
I guess you could've sent somebody out on deck with a Stinger in the era the game is set. And in WWII there were specialized flak u-boats, but after that air defense has been pretty much "don't be seen". If you've screwed up bad enough in a modern-ish submarine to have to fight an aircraft, shooting back is the least of your worries.

A good lesson on why waging AA warfare from a submarine is a bad idea. As aircraft became more and more of a threat to U-boats the Germans attempted to develop new ways to counter and defeat them, such as adding all kinds of "winter-garden" gun platforms, larger flak guns and even as you mentioned,the U-Flack designated AA boat. Eventually, they made the correct determination that this armament did little more than incentivize the U-boat captain to fight aircraft (those gun platforms didn't help him if he was running away, and on the contrary probably slowed his diving time).

In many cases even if they could shoot the aggressor down they'd take damage and either way almost always would be finished off by the next aircraft or so (which would usually have a great idea of where the U-boat is after engaging the previous engagement).

If you encounter MPA, run and hide.

Edit: Also I will mention here for historical accuracy, there were some old Fleet-boats in the mid-60s which were issued Redeye MANPADS I think on Med deployments. These missiles probably would have had a hard time against helicopters and an even harder one against MPA.

stratege1401
09-23-17, 11:45 AM
Yes, Russian sub receive manpad, for testing purpose. The accuracy and "no easy use" was a factor to stop the test.

Anyway, check this: as you can see, the upper right caption show real footage

https://youtu.be/jIGl42ELB_A