SECNAV Announces Virginia class submarines for women

[Kitsune]

There is the Russian Hypercavitating torpedo. . . .You hear much in the press about how dangerous it is but ,y understanding from military discussions is that unless armed with a nuke is effectively useless at hitting anything

[GuppyShark]

Thanks for the corrections on underwater travel.

A quick web search tells me that a submarine patrol is two months long. Even assuming an immediate conception, the patrol will be over well before the sailor will be unable to fulfill her duties.

[Kitsune]

Thanks for the corrections on underwater travel.

A quick web search tells me that a submarine patrol is two months long. Even assuming an immediate conception, the patrol will be over well before the sailor will be unable to fulfill her duties.

There are however complications in some cases which might be beyond the corpsman's ability to deal with.
Not saying anything is not surmountable but there are issues

[GuppyShark]

Thanks for the corrections on underwater travel.

A quick web search tells me that a submarine patrol is two months long. Even assuming an immediate conception, the patrol will be over well before the sailor will be unable to fulfill her duties.

There are however complications in some cases which might be beyond the corpsman's ability to deal with.
Not saying anything is not surmountable but there are issues

Such as? We're talking about pregnancies at the stage when there isn't even a visible effect.

Do we allow sailors with appendixes to serve on a submarine, since they may experience appendicitis?

[Thanas]

If the two months figure is correct than pregnancies should not be much of a factor in sub duty after all. Mandatory pregnancy checks before leaving port would also make sure nobody would get on who was pregnant.

[GuppyShark]

I would assume all submarine crew would undergo a routine medical before boarding, given that they will be going to be far from a hospital for a few months. But you know what they say about assumptions....

[Sea Skimmer]

You need to know the materials used which is probably a good way to get an upper limit. It is not like you need to know the exact crush depth, you just need to know the maximum possible crush depth to develop weapons reaching that depth.

The upper limit you would get from such a simple examination would be useless; the maximum possible ocean pressure is ~16,100psi, while the steel the US makes most of its modern submarines out of is HY-80 rated for 80,000 psi, though Seawolf used HY-100 rated for 100,000psi. Attempts to make hulls from HY-130 never worked out, but HY-180 steels exist, and now even more insane stuff. Problem is it gets impossible to weld with thick pieces in an acceptable, safe, manner.

The issue is a submarine hull is not rigid, it compresses under pressure. That makes designing, let alone estimating crush depth much more difficult then just the material + thickness, and while you can ballpark it, the ballpark is fairly large. This issue also sets a strict limit on the number of safe dives a submarine hull can make which is a big reason why submarines have much shorter and non extendable lives compared to surface ships.



Oh and no way is Seawolf 40 knots or even close. The speed-power curves become insane at that point, and completely pointless since you become so loud you might as well surface and start waving flags at the enemy. Seawolf barely has more shaft power then a Soviet Alfa class, with almost four times the displacement! It is on the fast side thanks to the low weight and great length of the HY-100 hull, but over 35 knots is absurdly unlikely. The USN needed its subs fast enough to run with a fast carrier group, anything over that had no point compared to spending the money and weight improving the tactical 'silent' speed which is much less, but far more important on average.

[Sea Skimmer]

Wasn't that how the russians got the US to develop torpedoes that could attack subs at a depth of 900 metres, that allegedly being the service diving depth of the Alfas, when the only sub they had that could actually go that deep at all was one lonely Mike?

Apparently it turned out in the final final end, that the Alfa class hull actually was strong enough overall to dive deep, but for whatever reasons the Soviets did not design the preforations in the hull for great depths. Silly communists. The US and UK might have designed largely the same torpedoes anyway though, because both were strongly considering deep diving submarines themselves for multiple reasons, and the deep water performance led to much higher speeds at shallow depths when the torpedo deals with less backpressure. That's how the RN ended up with Spearfish doing 80 knots on the surface.

[Borgholio]

I'm going by Jane's Fighting Ships which lists 35 knots, and the assumption that the performance of the sub is always in excess of what is assumed in the various publications. Then again, if Jane's already includes the best top-speed estimate, I'm probably wrong.

[Kitsune]

Oh and no way is Seawolf 40 knots or even close. The speed-power curves become insane at that point, and completely pointless since you become so loud you might as well surface and start waving flags at the enemy. Seawolf barely has more shaft power then a Soviet Alfa class, with almost four times the displacement! It is on the fast side thanks to the low weight and great length of the HY-100 hull, but over 35 knots is absurdly unlikely. The USN needed its subs fast enough to run with a fast carrier group, anything over that had no point compared to spending the money and weight improving the tactical 'silent' speed which is much less, but far more important on average.

Norman Friedman in "U.S. Submarines Since 1945: An Illustrated Design History is willing to give Seawolf 35 knots

As far as depth, he is also willing to give test depth of 1300 ft for all submarine classes Thresher and after although no listing for Los Angeles and Seawolf.

Book predates the Virginia class