Submarines

I don't know why, but I have always had a fascination with submarines. I love submarine movies, articles, photos and such. My interest in submarines is only rivaled by my interest in space. Much in the world of submarines is either secret, or has been kept secret for many years, before being released to the public. Even when we go back to the World War II, we find an advanced submarine that the Germans had, that if built in sufficient numbers would have decimated our shipping. It had just come along too late in the war, much as the jet fighters did. The Americans took this submarine back to the U.S. and incorporated many of its features into their own submarines. It is probably safe to say that the Germans are responsible for a huge leap in weapons technology. This is unfortunate for the world, as we are now seeing the results of this leap, as hostile countries apply this technology to their own weapons programs, such as their rocket programs.

Advanced submarines are now plying the waters of the world and they are not all nuclear powered. These beasts boast new torpedoes that are rocket powered and can travel many hundreds of miles per hour under water, making it almost impossible to intercept them. They travel in a bubble to avoid friction and as near as I can tell, were invented by the Russians. To realize the gravity of this situation, think of it this way. A torpedo traveling from a mile away would only take about 12 seconds to reach its target. By the time it was spotted, it would be upon you. I have heard that these torpedoes are being improved and the goal is to get them to travel 600 miles per hour or twice the speed they go now. This would cut the fire time to target from one mile away to only 6 seconds.

China has gradually been improving its nuclear and conventional submarine fleet. Janes, the prestigious association that keeps track of such things. has stated that the Chinese are building an underwater submarine base along with a surface port for its warships. As with everything else that the Chinese do, it is a gradual project that has been ongoing for about 20 years. The Chinese usually proceed at a slow but steady pace and this seems to work quite well for them. It is said that their aim is to control the South China sea using advanced nuclear submarines along with surface ships. The new base is located at Sanya. The South China sea contains the sea lanes for the important Asian economy.

USS Thresher
Photo Source: US Navy

All of us are familiar with the attempts to discover the location of the Titanic, but sometimes things are not what they seem. It is a hard lesson to learn, because most of us believe it when we are told things and the search for the Titanic was not any different. The truth of the matter is that the search for the Titanic, even though it was found, was not a search just for the Titanic. Oh you find this hard to believe? I don't blame you, but here is the true story. The U.S. government wanted to inspect the wrecks of two nuclear submarines that were lost during the cold war. They didn't want to draw attention to this fact, so they invented a cover mission, the Titanic search. The subs that we wanted to examine were the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion and these were indeed examined before the search for the Titanic continued. We had suspected that the Scorpion might have been sunk by the USSR. The truth is that Dr. Ballard found the Titanic in only 12 days. "I couldn’t tell anybody,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on me. It was a secret mission. I felt it was a fair exchange for getting a chance to look for the Titanic. We handed the data to the experts. They never told us what they concluded – our job was to collect the data. I can only talk about it now because it has been declassified.” By the way, when Dr. Ballard inspected the Scorpion he concluded that it was hit by a torpedo that it fired itself, that went rogue..

The USS Thresher was a very important submarine for the U.S. In 1960 the submarine was launched from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and was a new class of attack submarine. It had been designed to be more silent than other submarines and to be able to operate deeper. It was so advanced that this one boat gave the U.S. an advantage over all USSR submarines of the time. It had the first computerized fire control system, the biggest sonar with a huge range and was able to fry anti-submarines missiles. It was the most advanced submarine ever created. On April 9, 1963, this incredibly advanced piece of machinery made a dive to see what her limits were. A surface ship was monitoring her and communications had been established between the two ships. At 9:13 am the surface ship realized that there was a problem with the USS Thresher. Thresher sent this message, "Experiencing minor difficulties. Have positive up angle. Am attempting to blow. Will keep you informed." About 3 minutes later a garbled transmission was received by the surface ship then a rumble and then silence. One man had left the Thresher because of a family emergency. The U.S. Navy wanted to investigate the accident but was unable to find the wreck. It turned out that sloppy construction may have caused the boat's destruction. Over 14 percent of the high pressure piping had failed inspection and hundreds of other joints had never been inspected. At the depth that Thresher was at, one 6 inch pipe, if it failed, would dump 100,000 pounds of water into the boat every minute.

Arihant Advanced Technology Vessel
Graphic Source: Copyrighted by Gagan. The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work,commercial use, and all other use is permitted. The drawing was created on MS Paint.

India has been getting into advanced weapons in a big way. They have just launched what they call the Advanced Technology Vessel, or ATV. It is a nuclear powered submarine that has been under raps for years. Design and construction was begun in the 1970s and has finally come to reality. The submarine is named Arihant which means destroyer of enemies. It is one of 5 that have been approved. The only other countries to operate nuclear powered submarines are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China. The specs for the sub are:
110 meters long and 11 meters wide
6000 tons displacement
22 knots, admitted top speed submerged
Complement of 95 officers and men
Missile launching capability. Holds 12 SLBM.(Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles) and can fire them even under the polar ice cap

HMS Astute
Photo Source: Public Domain

Another country that is claiming to have built the world's most advanced nuclear submarine is Great Britain. Three of these boats are being built. They are the Astute, Ambush and Artful and 4 more are on the maybe list. The problem is that the subs are so over budget that they are in real trouble. The Astute was launched on 8 June, 2007. The ships reactor will never have to be refueled during the boat's 25 year service life. The boat is capable of staying under the water without coming up, but can only carry about 3 months worth of food. The boat was 43 months behind schedule. The boat is still running trials and is expected to be commissioned in 2010. Here are the specs for the Astute:
97 meters long and 11.3 meters wide
7400 tons in weight
29 knots, admitted top speed submerged
Complement of 98 officers and men, but can have up to 109
The boat has six 21 inch torpedo tubes, 38 spearfish torpedoes, UGM-84 Harpoon and Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles and naval mines

First there was the rocket race to get long range rockets. Almost every country in the world has engaged in this. Next was the race to get nuclear weapons and now we have the race to build the world's most efficient submarines. None of this is good folks and might have disastrous effects on the world someday.