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Usually there is no reason to go deep. To go bellow layer yes. But deeper ?
With peace time missions there are also safety margins. If you are near max depth, you cannot recover from flooding or controls jam that easily. Emergency blowing is way slower at high depth, and so on.
You would use maximum depth when evading threats you know about. As for weapons, I have no idea, but I guess that it's easier to make torpedo run well at large depths, than it is to make a sub operate there.
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That bit about emergency blowing being slower at deep depths is a bit...surprising. Seems to run counter to what one might expect....
I woonder if there's more than one layer one would encounter as they go deeper and deeper.
Doing some research on this- (of course there's little info on these boats)-
Alfa's are rumored to be 900 m capable with some account of a captain of one of them taking his boat down to 3000 to regularly lose tailing 688I's and make them look like a extreme joke - but Alfa's seem to be actually in the 700 m range give or take..
Sierras... seem to crush at 900 m + - the 3000 ft regime- that's the limit of ADCAPs- and they're still active.
There was that one Mike class boat which could hit the 4000s ...and would crush at 5000- that had the accident..
Since the Sierras are STILL running around even now- I figure it's reasonable to assume the Russians aren't going to forsake the idea of building more deep diving subs- and if they build another in the vein of the Sierra/Mikes...
Well, for one- wouldn't they routinely take advantage of their deep diving capability? I wonder how well you could shadow a US CVBG from a mile deep... And they don't need to zoom around at 40 -50 knots that deep- they could with impunity, but if they don't -they aren't getting detected unless they go right over a SOSUS relay. And, detection is all you could even do at that.
the other thing is- It makes me wonder what in the world the US would do in a fight with something like this. The 688's and I's have already been a bit...outmanuevered by Alfas reportedly...but against Sierras and Mikes at a depth like that- the Virginas (being Littoral orientated)couldn't hack it, and the Seawolves which can go almost half a mile deepif they're feeling risky - have the best chance of detecting and intercepting one i suppose , but their ADCAPS don't play a mile deep.
- In a deepwater fight , wouldn't we be screwed beyond belief going up against boats like this? Just sit out of ADCAP range and lob torpedoes ? Of course, being able to move 40-50+ knots is almost just as good, and when combined with that depth- makes you untouchable. And you're harder to detect at all speeds, if you are even detectable at all.
This reminds me of the capability effects of fighter planes right now, in that the SSN21's are similar to F-22's and the SSN 774's are similar to F-35's in that they have advanced capabilities, but our :cheaper: alternative can't match up for certain reasons or in a shooting war won't have the efficency of the more advanced platform, while the more , expensive weapon can rule the day, but is hyper-limited in numbers(although that's where the comparisons end, as you can somewhat-easily choose to toss a IRST on a F-22 and it's efficency rises to the best on the planet against its peers which are also low-observable, whereas I don't ?think? They could take the SSN21's and refit them to be able to dive a mile+ deep.
..Maybe we do need to think about DSRV's with ADCAPs strapped to them heh.... or on a more serious note, plans for when we get out of a littoral focus and the Virginas are done, for a Seawolf successor that can chase these boats down to a mile deep and beyond.
..Now i'm curious what yield steel it'd take to match the Ti boats of the Russians...Best we have are the HY-100 Seawolves ..might be time to seriously consider titanium. OR a blend