We are but diesel-electrics are swines to pick up, especially the German-built ones (one pays a cost premium for the German boats but the quality of construction is worth it). Running on batteries, the diesel-electrics make very little noise and what they do usually is in frequencies that are hard to detect over long distances. That's part of the art of building submarines (the early Russian diesel-electrics up to the 641B class were actually quite easy to pick up because they emitted a sound signature that was on frequencies that did transmit well). Detecting a diesel-electric that's crawling on its batteries is almost impossible unless one starts very close to her. The upside is that the battery charge has only a limited life and once that's gone, the sub has to either surface or snort, both of which are very noisy and indiscrete (snorting is actually noisier that charging on the surface since the noise is all transmitted into the water because the hull is totally submerged. On the surface, a large proportion of that noise goes into the air.Pelranius wrote:I wonder why it would take so long to find the Tekuma? I though American and NATO in general was very got at ASW, even against diesel submarines.
Can't do that unfortunately, missiles have to be serviced like everything else. Normally, assuming that the Israelies do have 20 nuclear-tipped missiles, 10 will be deployed on submarines, five will be in a pierside depot waiting to be issued and five will be in deep maintenance (ie dismantled and being refurbished). That's how I got the number 20 by the way. Israel has three Dolphin class boats, each of which has four large-diameter tubes in addition to their standard 21 inch tubes. That implies four missiles ready to fire. To be reasonably confident of having four missiles ready to fire, one needs to have five on board. So, we can deduce the load-out of nuclear missiles on a Dolphin (if they carry nuclear missiles at all which has never been confirmed) would be five. There are three Dolphins, implying a patrol pattern where one is at sea, one is ready to go to sea and one is in maintenance. This means that two boats will need to have their missile load-out on board (giving ten missiles) while five more are held dockside for the submarine in maintenance (those missiles will be reloads for the two operational boats whould the third boat be in deep maintenance). That brings us up to 15. We need an allowance for missiles in deep maintenance; a reasonable number would be between five and ten (for the US it would be ten) but I took five bearing in mind the established principle that, given a choice between two alternatives, the Israeli Navy will pick the wrong one. By the way, trying to maintain a permanent deterrent patrol using three boats really doesn't work very well and wears the boats out fast; that's why the Israeli Navy has ordered two more Dolphins.Tiwaz wrote:Then again, Israel is not exactly large nation. Leaving nukes laying around can for them mean they never get the chance to use them if things get bad. Considering Israel's attitude towards it's surroundings, I would not find it surprising to hear they keep all their sub launched missiles in the subs at all times.
By the way, on the subject of the Dolphins, they're not 214s or 212s, they're actually derivatives of the Norwegian Ula class by way of its aborted German equivalent, the Klasse 210.
