Quote:
Originally Posted by Linton
In the early 1950s a concept of the fighter submarine was considered.A fighter is a point defense weapon used to defend an area but has a good turn of speed to get about its allotted box and interdict.The concept was studied in the RN but was abandoned.As we have seen before the cccp had a submarine for every task and often for only an individual task hence the Alfa.What the USN are buying it for I do not know.A submarine is a black cat in a darkened room-you may not even be sure it is there but the threat remains.A loud submarine darting around causing a lot of noise negates its greatest strength -stealth!It then turns into your daughters stereo!!
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It depends really, what if the mission at hand doesn't require stealth ?
Imagine this : 5 alfa's running towards an american battlegroup ready to sink the aircarft carrier.
A lot of 688i are there for interdiction.
The 688/688i are stealthier but their weapons proves ineffective against the alfas because of speed.
American subs have always had a great advantage in terms of stealth, but what good is a weapon (in this case a torpedo) that can't get at the target because the target outruns the torpedo ?
Now if the Alfa were slow and loud I would agree that it wouldn't have had any practical use, but thats not the case.