View Single Post
Old 01-01-16, 02:18 PM   #1
ikalugin
Ocean Warrior
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Moscow, Russia
Posts: 3,212
Downloads: 8
Uploads: 0


Default

Basically those are two different boats with different specialisation.

Astute class has a complex hull shape, huge side mounted sonar arrays and a relatively strong torpedo armament. This makes Astute the best 4th gen ASW hunter-killer.

Virginia on the other hand is a mass produced, technologically simple multirole sub - jack of all trades but a master of none, the sub that follows the lineage stretching back to 50s.

Hence I would say that they should not be compared directly. A better comparison to the Astute would be... Seawolf class, as Seawolf is also ASW specialised 4th gen submarine. Overall I would say that Astute is better, due to the larger sonar apertures.

What other 4th gen subs you get? Baracuda class - a "minimal" French SSN and the massive Yasen class - the death star with more than twice the weapons capacity of Virginia.
__________________
Grumpy as always.
ikalugin is offline   Reply With Quote