What about the Guppy class?

[CCIP]

Guppy boats are WWII fleet boats upgraded at the early stages of the Cold War to bring them up to about the level of the Type XXI technologically.

They're not a class as such since they're the same fleet boats of WWII, just significantly upgraded.

GUPPY stands for Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program

First upgrades were in 1947, so you wouldn't see them in the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater..._Power_Program

[Keyne]

So they basically upgraded the Gato, Baleo, Tench submarines? Cool, then any of those in the game would be physically similar but have system upgrades after the war. Based on the Guppy program info are the US subs in the pacific theater in WWII less advanced than the U-boats in SH4??

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Keyne

So they basically upgraded the Gato, Baleo, Tench submarines? Cool, then any of those in the game would be physically similar but have system upgrades after the war. Based on the Guppy program info are the US subs in the pacific theater in WWII less advanced than the U-boats in SH4??

Yep, they're the same fleet boats of the game.

They're certainly less advanced than the Type XXI, but that isn't saying much since the XXI never made it into real service.

Otherwise, it's hard to say. German boats had better depth and manuevering performance - but American boats had far better electronics, including excellent radar and more sophisticated controls. Overall I would say the technology level of American fleet boats was definitely above primary German war boats (Type VII, Type IX) - but remember that they were very different in their design philosophy. I think American techology gave them an edge for the type of war they were fighting. (may not have were they fighting the same kind of sub war as the Germans)

[DaMaGe007]

also *aparently* the american boats ran off electrics all the time which means no changeover pause when diving. Im looking forward to this.

[NEON DEON]

Yes the U S fleet boats had diesel electric drive. They ran off electric engines all the time. Another thing the fleet boat could do was shift into reverse on the surface automatically as oposed to the U Boat direct drive which had to disengage the diesel engines on the surface and engage the electric motors to reverse on the surface. So the fleet boat could back one engine while running the other engine forward and basically turn the boat in place.

[Sailor Steve]

While the US boats used the electric motors for propulsion all the time, the source of the electricity had to be shifted; hence the line in <gag>U-571</gag> "Shutting down diesels, switch propulsion to the batteries!"

[Aimbot]

Originally Posted by NEON DEON

Yes the U S fleet boats had diesel electric drive. They ran off electric engines all the time. Another thing the fleet boat could do was shift into reverse on the surface automatically as oposed to the U Boat direct drive which had to disengage the diesel engines on the surface and engage the electric motors to reverse on the surface. So the fleet boat could back one engine while running the other engine forward and basically turn the boat in place.

That's good to know, I wonder if we'll be able to do that.

[Sailor Steve]

They've suggested that the engines will still NOT be separately run; but we'll see soon.