Quote:
Originally Posted by ikalugin
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.
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Some good points but has anyone taken into account the crew quality/training?
Now that is a debate all by itself.