Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigtime
That's why submarines are sneaky.
Does Turkey have anything like a SOSUS line in the straight?
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Submarines as a rule pretty much don't draw international lines on their maps. Well they're there but ignored as required.
There are several great books that study the Sub Service during the cold war where American subs parked inside Soviet Naval Bases so they could count active hulls and departing subs.
In this case modern American Attack subs are very hard to detect and you have to be out right lucky. Even the Sosus nets had trouble with detecting modern Subs.
I don't see the American's moving Strategic assets like a SSBN Ohio Sub into that area, there's simply no need, they only carry a nuclear payload with standard torpedo's for defense but they're not made to be scouts or attack boats and if they need to launch their missiles they could launch them from the pier in Bangor and hit their targets.
The intriguing thing about Ohio's though is that they're quieter then the water around them, they actually absorb ambiant water noise at a crawl.
The Virginia's are very cool boats, but they're designed to be brown water subs, they can act as hunter killers but have a distinct depth disadvantage to Russian built Hunter Killers in blue water. In fact its rumored that the Russian Akula (II) class is a better hunter killer then the Virginia in terms of speed (Virginia 25 knots, Akula 28 knots) depth of dive capability (Akula 600 Meters, Virginia between 250 and 500 meters)
The Frightening thing is that the new Akula II just successfully snuck into the Bay of Mexico on patrol and went un noticed. Rumored to be as quiet or quieter then the LA Class 688i, the Virginia is a degree quieter but is outgunned, out sped and out depthed by the Akula II which is equivalent to the 688 (I) Class, which means that the submarine gap has significantly closed in the last 10 years, with rumors that the new Class of Russian SSN's will actually have a combat capability edge.
In terms of the 688i vs Akula II, the rumor is that the Akula II radiates about 110 db at crawl speed, while someone has calculated that the 688i radiates about 105 db of radiated sound. The 688i is rumored to have a top speed of 33 knots, but American tactics mean that's never hit, its more likely in an equivalent 25 knot to 28 knot range. The 688i is not a great deep diver because of its construction and design looking out at probably between 3 and 400 meters.
Now the interesting thing about the Akula II is it was designed to carry and fire the 200 Knot Supercavitating Torpedo with an extended range of up to 15 kms. The American mark 48 has a range of about 40 kms, but a speed of 55 kms
Its funny, during the Cold War the Russians had a distinct edge in numbers but a massive disadvantage in terms of technology and quieting.
Now its almost reversed, the U.S. right now has the numbers but the Russian's might have a slight technology edge.