Mean Machines - Future of Silent warfare - Undersea combat vehicles

The term "Silent Service" evokes images of Second World War submarines complete with foul air, battery acid and diesel fuel.

In conventionally powered diesel-electric subs, the diesel engines powered the motors on the surface and charged her batteries. The batteries powered her motors submerged, the same principles used since before World War I

The present day nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine brings a new meaning to the term "Silent Service." With its slippery Black painted stealthy hull and ultra quiet machinery — its silence can be very deadly to any aggressor

“Underway on nuclear power.” The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) signaled that historic message at 11:00 hours on 17 January 1955 as she put to sea for the first time as the first nuclear powered submarine of the world. She went on to make headlines by surfacing at the North Pole and traveling submerged far longer than the diesel-electric submarines of her time. Her power plant gave the US a leap ahead in submarine development towards the modern nuclear submarine of today!

There are two forces that impede a submarine’s speed underwater; skin friction and eddy-making resistance. To overcome skin friction the nuclear sub's hull is made as small in area and as smooth as possible. Overcoming the eddy-making resistance requires the streamlining or removal of protuberances from the hull. Fins and control surfaces are streamlined. The nuclear subs of today have minimal or no flat deck. Their conning towers are reduced to the sail configuration that are common on all of today’s fast attack submarines. The circular hull section offers the greatest resistance to the pressure found in the ocean’s great depths, as well as minimizes eddies. This is important because the propeller wash and eddies can leave a tell tale signature or wake for ships above.

Today's Nuclear powered submarines are silent, powerful, radar and sonar evading, and can fire guided-missiles to pulverize an enemy more than 1,600km away. Any country possessing one has an awesome retaliatory capability. Its the principle of "I can hit back anytime, anywhere, and you cannot do a damn thing about it" philosophy which make subs such mean machines

These super-subs have huge nuclear reactors that can power a small city and it will never need refueling.

The killer nuclear submarine, which is more complex than the US space shuttles and able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing, is also able to make oxygen and fresh water from seawater to keep her crew alive when undersea for a long time in time of war



For scale, some of these smaller subs weigh 7,400 tons, are more than 291 foot long, the length of a football pitch, as wide as four double-Decker buses and 12 storeys high.










In case most people truly realize what a deadly weapon the submarines are, imagine THIS scenario

A hostile nuclear sub slips silently through the ocean and nears your country's coastline. Stretched as long as two football fields, her silhouette moves like a shadow on the surface. She carries 24 nuclear ballistic missiles. Each missile carries eight nuclear warheads. Each warhead can be sent to a different target. One sub carries the power of 5,000 bombs like the one that destroyed Hiroshima.





Her mission - hide under the sea and stand by for the order to end the world.



An order is issued. The captain receives the order and relays the readying of weapon command down to the weapons officer. The hatch is opened, water floods the missile tube ...............and ..........at the captains orders , the weapons officer turns a firing key…and launch the missile
Could be today , tomorrow........or never................Sure you will see tomorrow ?