Quote:
Originally Posted by FPSchazly
The San Francisco damage was immense. That, too, was also outside of the pressure hull, though. Or, at least a bulk of it was. The sonar dome is outside the pressure hull. "Small scrapes", as Wikipedia describes it, on the pressure hull could be much deadlier (or more crippling) to an LA than the front-end collision on the San Francisco.
Well, the Seawolf also has a significantly larger beam. The circumference of the Seawolf hull is nearly 40% longer than for the Virginia and the Seawolf isn't too much shorter, so the Seawolf has more steel. (A rough calculation gives approximately 10% more steel assuming constant hull thickness between Seawolf and Virginia. I'm not sure that's a valid assumption if the Seawolf can dive deeper than the Virginia, though).
For a crude example, if the Virginia hull thickness is the same as the LA, that would mean a greater diving depth. If they wanted the same diving depth as HY80 on the LA, however, they could use a thinner wall made of HY120. However, the Virginia weighs a lot more so I'm not sure about the thinner part. It's probably a combination of slightly thinner but still a somewhat greater diving depth.
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I did see pictures of the San Francisco its bow was eventually cut off and replaced with an older laid up 688 that's what i heard not sure on the truth of it, but yes the damage was immense to say the least only pictures i've ever seen with that much damage came from the Kursk in 2000
As for the HY ratings i understand the pressure ratings but in terms of thickness relation to strength thats where i get lost, given the state of technology today i would assume that HY 120 steel is some what cheaper today than back in the 70's and 80's when the 688's were coming online, i do know the hull cost for seawolf was extremely expensive again that was a cost forecast taken from 1997 so again thats taken from the time.