[AR] subs (was Re: Re: MSR reactors.)
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 18:16:53 -0400 (EDT)
On Sun, 14 Jul 2019, Anthony Cesaroni wrote:
On the Virginia class boats, the VSL tubes are up front, directly behind
the main sonar sphere array and ahead of the torpedoes.
Yeah, vertical-launch *missile* tubes are sometimes put in the aft end of
the nose, exploiting the fact that the bulkiest parts of the sonar gear
are right forward and the volume behind them is mostly ballast tank.
Those tubes carry Tomahawk missiles and such, not torpedoes.
One perennial problem for sub designers is that torpedoes are big and the
volume available for storing them is limited, so a sub's total torpedo
count is not that large. The submariners understandably dislike
dedicating some of their precious torpedo slots to other weapons,
especially specialized ones that seem less likely to be useful for their
primary missions. Putting some vertical-launch tubes in the forward
ballast tank does cause some minor hassles, but makes it possible to
accommodate modest numbers of things like land-attack cruise missiles
without them occupying any torpedo storage.
The next generation of submarines are evaluating modular, externally
mounted torpedoes.
An old idea -- a fair number of early-20th-century subs supplemented their
internal torpedo storage with a few external torpedo tubes, which (like
the modern vertical-launch-missile tubes) could be reloaded only in port.
Sub designers mostly gave up on the idea because torpedoes in those tubes
weren't accessible for checkout and maintenance, and their reliability was
notoriously poor. Today, maybe it could be made to work well.
Henry
Other related posts:
- » [AR] subs (was Re: Re: MSR reactors.) - Henry Spencer
