Fastest SSK
 

What is the fastest SSK in the world? I know Seawolf is probably one of the fastest SSN running at 35 kts. What about SSK?

Type 209 21.5 knots
Ula 23 knots
^From Jane's

Top Speed from the net:
Amur/Lada Project 1850 22 Knots

Unknown top speeds:
Scorpène >20 knots
Upholder/Victoria >20 Knots
Type 212 >20 Knots
Collins >20 Knots

Why can't SSK reach and surpass 30 kt mark?

Electric motors don't provide sufficient SHP (Shaft Horse Power) to reach 30 knots.

And doesn't increased speed equal more noise, and subs are meant to remain silent/unseen etc

This is the way I look at it. As I understand it you can run a small to middling sized town from the power of a nuclear subs reactor(s). Which are always online. Try doing that with a subs diesals/batterys/AIP. Reactor=juice.

Heck they are nuclear reactors. Apparently a carriers reactors can run a small city. :o

Well yes, but speed is also an asset for hit and run attacks and getting on station.

A Carrier is a small city! :yep:

how many men has a carrier got, I heard awile ago it was about 10,000, thats a small town rather than a city

:rotfl: I am familiar with the saying. I should have said a LARGE city.

Anyway a modern US Carrier is anywhere from 5-6 thousand people, tops. To me, population wise, thats a small town. Cept no small town requires the juice that a modern carrier does. :yep:

Read somewhere that when the Enterprise was first built she had four reactors. It ended up, in hindsight, being an over kill. Full power would have ripped out the propeller shafts and the big E always had more "juice" then she ever really needed.

I think these days she only has two, thus creating more space for fuel, ammo etc.

A Nimitz has 5680 crewmembers, but as Pigfish indicated how many towns you know of go 32+ knots and have their own nuclear armed airforce?

Very aggressive ones :lol:

Naw Rochester NY doesn’t have any and we are about as aggressive as you can get. Although if I had a few ‘dial a yield’ nukes I might be able to walk down Avenue D with out getting mugged… maybe not… :hmm:

Mottos from around Rochester:
Greece: Discover the Promise [of bad roads]
Webster: Where life is worth living
Avenue D: Where you wallet is worth giving…

Anyone heard of Magneto Hydrodynamic drive, as filmed in "Red October"? Will that thing help increase sub speed?

No a MHD would make the boat go slower and be bigger than its conventional counterparts. Also in real life a MHD is very nosy. Some ships that were built with MHDs could only make 8 knots although research is being done on ships that could do 100 knots silently (or so they say :roll: ) its still many years away and would probably be limited to nuclear submarines.