Diesel Submarines: The Game Changer the U.S. Navy Needs

[ikalugin]

Nuclear as in they produce nuclear submarines or as in they have nuclear weapons?

[U56]

[QUOTE=ikalugin;2570089]Nuclear as in they produce nuclear submarines or as in they have nuclear weapons?[/QUOTE

Both. India and Pakistan currently face off over Kashmir with a bunch of tactical nukes. India has leased nuclear submarines from Russia, and I think now has completed a domestic build one as well.

[Mr Quatro]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Nuclear as in they produce nuclear submarines or as in they have nuclear weapons?

Nuclear submarines ... they don't build them do they?

They probably get them from russia ... all I know is what the front page of subsim says.

[ikalugin]

They built a pair of light SSBNs with Russian assistance.
http://www.hisutton.com/Vanquisher%2...20Arihant.html
Which is essentially a stretched kilo with inserted missile and nuclear power plant compartments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_212_submarine

[nikimcbee]

Wut? No love for the USS Blueback? They could modernize that? City of Portland hates it (cuz it's a WAR ship and precious, progressive Portland hates war)

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Wut? No love for the USS Blueback? They could modernize that? City of Portland hates it (cuz it's a WAR ship and precious, progressive Portland hates war)

When we decommed her sister, it felt like the Navy and DOD were going to send us all thank you notes for putting her out of her (thier?) misery.

Make no mistake, the Barbel class (and the Darter) were old by 1989. Aside from some upgrades to sonar and fire control, the class hadn't been touched since they converted from bow planes to fairwaters in (I think?) 1965.

Adding new gizmos to a nuke is fairly easy. They produce and generate more than enough power. On a diesel boat, something's gotta give which usually means getting used to cold water and living with a flashlight tied to your hand.

There's also that matter of "they ain't nukes..". My new crew members (well, most of them) seemed to like the idea that I could also wear DBF dolphins but it was a bit of a shock when I checked on board the Bremerton and my new COB hands me a full ship's qual card.

Normally, re-quals (going from one class to another) were more of an admin/CYA thing where you sit down with your duty chief on a duty day. For me, it was expected that I wouldn't mind being a non-qual again.


Lucky for me, a lot of the chiefs in the goat locker were on my side.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

When we decommed her sister, it felt like the Navy and DOD were going to send us all thank you notes for putting her out of her (thier?) misery.

Make no mistake, the Barbel class (and the Darter) were old by 1989. Aside from some upgrades to sonar and fire control, the class hadn't been touched since they converted from bow planes to fairwaters in (I think?) 1965.

Adding new gizmos to a nuke is fairly easy. They produce and generate more than enough power. On a diesel boat, something's gotta give which usually means getting used to cold water and living with a flashlight tied to your hand.

There's also that matter of "they ain't nukes..". My new crew members (well, most of them) seemed to like the idea that I could also wear DBF dolphins but it was a bit of a shock when I checked on board the Bremerton and my new COB hands me a full ship's qual card.

Normally, re-quals (going from one class to another) were more of an admin/CYA thing where you sit down with your duty chief on a duty day. For me, it was expected that I wouldn't mind being a non-qual again.


Lucky for me, a lot of the chiefs in the goat locker were on my side.

The thing that surprised me the most was how advanced the Blueback is/was and how clunky the Foxtrot was, which was newer. The Blueback was build ~1959ish and the B-39 was built in the early 70s. The Foxtrot looked like a copy of a German WW2 sub.


A diesel just doen't fit into our global strategy. They seem too limited to me.