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Originally Posted by Neal Stevens
They do snorkel, if they plan to leave the immediate vicinity of their homeport. The Gotland is very quiet but it sure isn't going to be transitting to the mid Atlantic on AIP. AIP power trains are limited to "weeks", and I imagine much of that is performed at minimal operations, so the sub is just a manned floating mine platform. They are potentially powerful if used close to home, but after four to eight weeks, they will be just the same as a conventional diesel sub-- a target.
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The problem is that diesels, like their steam counterparts, can be muffled. These days, apparently even diesel operation is comparable to SSN operation in terms of noise.
In 8 weeks, even a SSN will start to miss home.
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The US Navy leased one to study and test. According to the journalist, it "sank" several US nukes... hmmm... color me very doubtful. If the exercise conditions favor the Gotland's strengths, sure. But in real world conditions? I smell a little hype here
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Actually, there has been a long
history of diesels beating nukes, enough that it is hard to keep burying your head in the sand and insist that the diesels have been given an unfair advantage every time it happened.