Quote:
Originally Posted by magicstix
There will never be a *modern* submarine that carries aircraft.
Submarines today aren't designed to fight on the surface, and for very good reason. Lack of hydrodynamics kills stealth for one. For two, WW2 era submarines didn't have to deal with the kinds of threats that subs have to deal with today. In WW2, sub on ship fights were generally close range engagements where the surface ship was more or less blind. Today subs can be detected long range and attacked at stand off.
There are no aircraft that could be fielded from a submarine. Neither harriers nor F-35Bs have folding wings, and even taking an Ohio class SSGN and dumping as much as you can to put aircraft on it would give you 2 or 3 aircraft at best, with NO air defenses added, and these are the second largest subs ever built. Add in all the machinery required and crew to support the aircraft, and you very quickly have an impractical design.
If the design was practical, it would've survived beyond WW2 and we'd have sub carriers today.
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The Oberon class isn't modern? They were only decommissioned 11 years ago!
Survived beyond WWII? Damn the SSM-N-8 Regulus missile could be launched from a Submarine and Land ashore if it aborted its mission:
Bet'cha you never seen a nuclear missile with
landing gear before!
Yes the F-35B and the Harrier don't have folding wings. Is there some fundamental law of aerodynamics that says a VTOL aircraft can't have folding wings?
Didn't think so...
Interestingly a Harrier is shorter than a trident missile, and weighs six times less, so basically an Ohio class hull could carry 24 Harriers with about five reloads of stores and fuel. OMG an Ohio SSVN is looking better than an Invincible class carrier!
As I mentioned before the USS
Jimmy Carter deployed a surveillance UAV over Yeonpyeong island following the North Korean attack on the island last year. (So for those keeping score at home that is a submarine, launching an
aircraft, under
combat conditions). The German Type 212 U Boats are going to be outfitted with three short range Aladin UAVs and a 30MM Rheinmetall cannon on a mast.