Re: Boats


Message posted by Magoo on May 08, 2000 at 01:53:17 EST:

Jeff and all

The thing is, the Americans, Russians & British have had stealth boats for decades, they're called nuclear attack submarines (or SSNs)! The Swedish design and others like it are ideal for small navies with no 'blue water' (i.e. high seas) aspirations but are not necessary for the larger navies with global power and responsibilities.

The 688I (Los Angeles Improved) class is probably the most effective stealth machine ever deployed operationally, and the even newer 'Seawolf' class entering service soon will be several times quieter and much faster again. The Americans are also adapting the extremely quiet 'Ohio' class 'boomers' to a secondary attack role, with special forces insertions and attack sub tactics being adapted to these much bigger missile boats. The British 'Swiftsure' class is also thought to be incredibly quiet and fast. I don't know too much about the Russian attack boats anymore.

Almost all of these subs can operate in blue or green water (coastal) environments, and are far more flexible than any surface combatant could hope to be. This is why you will only see stealth faceting and features being applied to the larger classes of ships, starting with the DD-21 class destroyers due to enter service from 2008.

The new CVX (-78 onwards) class of carriers due to succeed the 'Nimitz' class from 2012 will also employ some active and electronic stealth characteristics, but one must consider this - how much physical stealth design can one apply to a 110,000 ton ship!

Magoo


In Reply to: Re: Boats posted by Jeff on May 05, 2000 at 10:30:07 EST:

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