America's Virginia-Class Submarine vs. Russia's Lethal Yasen: Who Wins?

[Onkel Neal]

New material for a Sonalysts revival?

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the...al-yasen-17892

The United States Navy’s submarine force emerged from the Cold War as the undisputed masters of the undersea realm. The elite, all-nuclear submarine force watched as its Soviet submarine force rivals rusted away pierside, the newly founded Russian Federation unable to maintain them.

After more than twenty years of American submarine supremacy, a new challenger has arisen from the deep. Slightly familiar and almost two decades in the making, it’s an unusual challenge to U.S. naval superiority, but nevertheless one with a long, lethal pedigree. How does this new old upstart, Russia’s Yasen-class submarine, compare with the new backbone of the U.S. submarine force, the Virginia class?

[Aktungbby]

The Virginia class is quieter and has a better sonar rig than its Russian opponent. In the world of submarine warfare, that’s an unbeatable combination. It can move and detect in ways that would give away Severodvinsk. One thing to be said for Severodvinsk is that it is more capable of quickly responding to a sudden target opportunity via her supersonic Klub ASW missiles. As for near term prospects, the usability of the Virginia’s sonar improves on a regular basis via software updates. Severodvinsk may not be able to update its sonar suite, and making the Russian submarines quieter may not be easily implemented. Overall, the edge has to be given to the Virginia class.

The Russian boats have smaller crews, suggesting automation; so we have the edge in dedicated talented manpower too...naturally now that women are in crews. Russia is essentially playing 'showpiece catchup ball' here and suffered economic delays in launching thes boats. "Money is the sinews of war" meets "and numbers have a cachet of their own." Russia is a third-rate trouble-maker these days: it should save it's military shekels and host more Olympics as it's showpiece tactics.

[Ghost Dog]

Funny thing is, both the Virginia and Yasen class are 'modernized' cold-war designs. The Virginia, a lower cost version of the Seawolf class, optimized for 'green water' ops. Reports say its slower than Seawolf and cannot dive as deep.

Yasen class was designed in the cold war, delayed and re-designed with more modern equipment when new funding came available nearly 20 years later. Like most late soviet era boats, she's probably fast and capable of diving very deep. She's also probably slightly noisier than the Virginia.

Sensors edge would goto Virginia class. If she's expecting trouble, she'll likely detect the Yasen first.

BUT

Weapons edge would goto Yasen. Super-cavitating rocket torpedoes such as the Shkval or stand-off ASW missiles, the Yasen can 'put a warhead on the forehead' further away and faster than the American.

So while Virginia detects the Yasen further out, she's got to manuever into a better range for her ADCAPS to have a chance. In that time, the Yasen might get a sniff of the Virginia. If not, she'll hear the launch transient and snapshot something back. So, a gunfight for sure.

What its going to come down to is each sub's (and crew's) ability to evade. It's Virginia's fight to lose. She just wasnt fully optimized for deep ocean ASW fights. She can certainly do that, but the class was built to also do other missions.

If the Seawolf class had properly been kitted out with UUM-125 Sea Lance, then Yasen loses. So, to make it a fair fight you might say it takes place under the ice cap, thus removing the Russian (and american lack of) stand-off weapons.

[jaop99]

The Russian dont need to get closer, only know where the other foe is ... and shoot this thing!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M-54_Klub

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by jaop99

The Russian dont need to get closer, only know where the other foe is ... and shoot this thing!

A potential problem being.....to find out where an enemy is they may first need to get real close, which would put them well within range of an enemies weapons.

[p7p8]

Originally Posted by jaop99

only know where the other foe is

This is the most difficult part for ASW operations!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by p7p8

This is the most difficult part for ASW operations!

True that