Submarines The recent deal between Australia and the United States for the purchase of nuclear submarines by Australia is a little puzzling to me. The reason I say this is the newest conventional subs are very quiet and can stay underwater much longer than in the past. It was estimated the price for 12 nuclear submarines for the United States will cost about 128 billion dollars. We are looking at almost 11 billion each. That is for the new Columbia class submarines including development. Some of the new conventional subs have air independent propulsion making them almost impossible to detect. As a matter of fact, during war games a year or two ago with the U.S. Navy, one of these subs was able to get to one of our carriers undetected. Sweden developed the first modern quiet submarine called the Gotland class. China knew the potential these submarines possessed and has quite a few in their fleet. Germany has improved on the submarines and made them even more quiet and sold dozens. It is now being said if these new non-nuclear subs are built the right way, they can be even quieter than a nuclear submarine. Some say these non-nuclear submarines can’t stay submerged very long, but that has changed. It is true a nuclear submarine can stay submerged for about 4 months or longer, the new quiet subs can stay submerged for up to 4 weeks at a clip which should be long enough. Germany makes one which can stay underwater for 2 months. One area which the nuclear submarine is superior in is speed. No other type of submarine can compare. The new quiet submarines are slow. The Gotland class only cruses at about 6 miles an hour and is too slow for long sea voyages. The cost is anywhere from 200 million dollars each to 600 million dollars. Compare this to the Columbia class nuclear submarines. Nuclear submarines are usually much bigger and more heavily armed. They can contain crew strength up to about 100 people while the conventional submarines we are talking about usually have a crew of about 30 or less. The history of the submarine goes back hundreds of years. The South developed a submarine during the Civil War. It was not the first submarine ever built, but looked more like a small version of a modern submarine. Crewmen would sit and turn a crank to power the propeller on the back. It wasn’t very successful since it sank and was recovered a couple of times and on the last voyage just sank after placing a torpedo into a Northern ship. Each time it sank the crew died. The total number of men killed was said to be 21. It was 40 feet long and launched in 1863. It is thought the blast from the torpedo it planted was responsible for the last time it sunk, but it did also sink the Northern ship the Housatonic. One of the dreams which has been around for a very long time is creating a craft which can act as a submarine and also fly. Today we are teased by UFOs which have been seen flying, diving into the ocean and coming out again. So far, we have not been able to perfect the craft due to many different reasons, one being the weight. It could become possible in the future if we can create some sort of electronic or plasma shielding which will be strong enough to protect our craft underwater and yet not be so heavy to prevent us from flying. Of course, there is antigravity which the United States has been working on for decades and if we perfect it, even submarines could fly. If it was up to me, which it isn’t, I would probably add the price of one more Columbia class submarine but use the money to buy 18 or more of the new quiet submarines. There is certainly nothing wrong with having some of them in our fleet. There is also something to be said for the advantage of numbers especially when fighting other subs. If we look at the submarine fleets of other countries here is what we find. North Korea currently has a submarine fleet of at least 83 submarines. China as of the writing of this article had 74 submarines in service and Russia had 48 and Iran has 27 new quiet subs and 7 mini subs. On the other side of the spectrum the United States has, according to Wikipedia, 31 Los Angeles class attack subs, 14 Ohio class ballistic missile subs, 3 Seawolf class fast attack subs, and 2 Virginia class fast attack subs with 7 under construction and 2 on order. These are all nuclear subs. Another dream of many nations, especially the United States is a nuclear submarine aircraft carrier. The Japanese had a sort of a conventional submarine aircraft carrier in World War II. It was a submarine with a hanger which held 3 planes. They were the largest subs in the war. They carried sea planes which had to be winched off board and back on board, there was no taking off or landing on the boat. They had built 3 of these types of subs and all 3 were sunk. Originally, they wanted 18 to be constructed. 15 were cancelled. The ideal modern one would be one which does not have to surface to launch its planes and maybe even contain planes which could land under water, but that is another story. For now, I think any nation would be extremely happy to have one which could surface, launch planes and then hide under the water again. In one way modern submarines are like automobiles, they have been around for over one hundred years and keep improving. One of the problems this country has is the cost of building things. Who would have ever thought a nuclear submarine would cost as much as an aircraft carrier? We overpay for everything in the military budget and often it is over budget and defective. If we would only enforce contracts better, we could save a lot of money.
|
