[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338351/Set-launch-nuclear-Leviathan-The-enormous-scale-biggest-submarine-built-Britain.html[/url]
[quote]Her nuclear reactor could power a city the size of Southampton, she will never need refuelling and she can use her guided missiles to pulverise an enemy more than 1,000 miles away.
Meet HMS Ambush, the Royal Navy’s newest hunter-killer submarine. The ‘super-sub’ is able to make oxygen and fresh water from seawater, to keep the 98 crew — it has not yet been decided if this will include women — alive in time of crisis.
And, despite being 50 per cent bigger than the Swiftsure and Trafalgar subs she will replace, Ambush is quieter. Her propellers are said to make less noise than a baby dolphin — making her virtually undetectable to enemy vessels.
Of course, that is if enemy vessels can get near her. The submarine’s sonar and radar are so sensitive that she can detect ships a staggering 3,000 nautical miles away.
It means that if she was sitting in the English Channel she would know if a ship left New York's harbour. A true titan of the deep, the £1.2billion warship will be launched at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria on Thursday.
But naval chiefs will nervously hope the newly-named craft will not suffer the same catalogue of disasters that has recently befallen her sister vessel, HMS Astute. Astute’s captain, Commander Andy Coles, was relieved of his duties after the submarine ran aground on a sandbank off the Isle of Skye in October.
During the rescue, a tug collided with the sub, causing £7million of damage. Last week, she limped back to her home port of Faslane after a mechanical failure at sea. Ambush will be unveiled and officially named by Lady Anne Soar, the wife of the Royal Navy’s Commander in Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar.
After the ceremony, the awesome 7,400-tonne sub will be wheeled from her shed and lowered into the wet dock for further outfitting and testing. And having come in massively over-budget and five years late, the Navy is expecting nothing less than a top-of-the-range vessel.
More complex than the U.S. Space Shuttles and able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing, Ambush is 291ft long — the same length as a football pitch — as wide as four double-decker buses and 12 storeys high. A typical patrol lasts ten weeks, but she could theoretically stay underwater for her entire 25-year lifespan.
HMS Ambush will carry 38 missiles — a mixture of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,240 miles, and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes to target other ships and submarines.
Her nuclear-powered engine will propel her through the water at more than 20 knots, allowing her to travel 500 miles a day. In this image released by the Navy, a section of the hull behind the conning tower has been intriguingly obscured for security reasons.
BAE Systems is building seven Astute-class subs. The £6.7 billion project is already £1.4 billion over budget, after being beset by problems and delays.
Read more: [url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338351/Set-launch-nuclear-Leviathan-The-enormous-scale-biggest-submarine-built-Britain.html#ixzz188pvLgvB[/url][/quote]
[img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/13/article-1338351-0C78E76B000005DC-132_964x407.jpg[/img]
Love how they have 5 chefs :v:
[quote]Ambush is 291ft long — the same length as a football pitch — as wide as four double-decker buses and 12 storeys high.[/quote]
Holy shit, that's one big ass submarine.
I want a Starbucks in that sub.
What is a football pitch.
Are we talking about foot fairy soccer, which they call football?
Awesome, my uncle is a submariner in the RN, maybe he'll get to serve on one in the future.
Is it really necessary?
5 full time chefs whenever you're hungry, awesome
Holy shit.
Awesome.
All that technology and it can only dive in excess of 500ft? I was expecting 5 miles!
[QUOTE=SiMoN 23259;26702688]All that technology and it can only dive in excess of 500ft? I was expecting 5 miles![/QUOTE]
You don't seem to understand how severe water pressure is even at 500ft.
[QUOTE=SiMoN 23259;26702688]All that technology and it can only dive in excess of 500ft? I was expecting 5 miles![/QUOTE]
Can you dive 5000ft? No? Didn't think so.
Woah, can even have a place for special soldiers.
That's one awesome submarine.
Needs to be painted yellow
wicked
I like ours better. They dive further, and have a cool name, but aren't nearly as big as that thing.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawolf_class_submarine[/url]
Typhoon class is 574 ft 2 in.
[QUOTE=Redcow17;26702594]What is a football pitch.
Are we talking about foot fairy soccer, which they call football?[/QUOTE]
In the other one over 600 students have died before leaving junior high. I don't see how that's any better...
[IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/5clfkn.jpg[/IMG]
Too bad it doesn't have any of the ballistic missiles.
[QUOTE=SiMoN 23259;26702688]All that technology and it can only dive in excess of 500ft? I was expecting 5 miles![/QUOTE]
At that depth, if I did my calculations right, the pressure is something like 1495044 Pa.
Which is like 15x standard atmospheric pressure.
[QUOTE=Redcow17;26702594]What is a football pitch.
Are we talking about foot fairy soccer, which they call football?[/QUOTE]
I think they are talking about hand egg where a bunch of closeted pansies who cry at the drop of a hat, and barely use their feet, which they call football?
cool sub, bad time to be making them.
[QUOTE=Ignhelper;26703414]Too bad it doesn't have any of the ballistic missiles.[/QUOTE]
Actually, if more submarines would follow that concept, the underwater would be a much nicer place.
[QUOTE=Miskav;26702751]You don't seem to understand how severe water pressure is even at 500ft.[/QUOTE]
I know it can kill a man, I'm not sure on the exact pressure, just saying something 12 stories high and 291ft long should be the king of the sea diving where it likes and going where it wants.
Hindenburg II
[QUOTE=SiMoN 23259;26703474]I know it can kill a man, I'm not sure on the exact pressure, just saying something 12 stories high and 291ft long should be the king of the sea diving where it likes and going where it wants.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but what is the point of going any deeper?
"yeah we're just chilling at 1000 ft below sea level cause we feel like it"
Wow, that is a huge sum of money to invest in a non-ballistic missile submarine. I'm surprised such value is still placed on counter naval operations for a submarine.
Fucking amazing piece of engineering though. Holy crap.
[editline]14th December 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;26703507]Yeah but what is the point of going any deeper?
"yeah we're just chilling at 1000 ft below sea level cause we feel like it"[/QUOTE]
500 feet is pretty shallow. A part of submarine concealment is related to thermal layers in water and the effects temperature and pressure have on sound.
Since sound "bends" down towards the colder waters, if you can find the point where the water pressure is high enough to reflect the sound wave, you can dip down below that and effectively use the ocean to bounce sonar waves back and conceal your presence.
Depending on the temperature of the water, the depth of the thermal layers can vary. Occasionally the thermal layer is pretty deep and may require a deep dive in order to use the masking properties.
Of course this is all speculation because I don't recall any actual numbers on normal depths for this, and frankly we have no idea how much further than 500 feet it can go down, so it's complete conjecture at this point.
Submarines are so cool.
[QUOTE=GunFox;26703510]
500 feet is pretty shallow. A part of submarine concealment is related to thermal layers in water and the effects temperature and pressure have on sound.
Since sound "bends" down towards the colder waters, if you can find the point where the water pressure is high enough to reflect the sound wave, you can dip down below that and effectively use the ocean to bounce sonar waves back and conceal your presence.
Depending on the temperature of the water, the depth of the thermal layers can vary. Occasionally the thermal layer is pretty deep and may require a deep dive in order to use the masking properties.
Of course this is all speculation because I don't recall any actual numbers on normal depths for this, and frankly we have no idea how much further than 500 feet it can go down, so it's complete conjecture at this point.[/QUOTE]
Doing a quick google, a bunch of anecdotal sources say it varies from like 100-300+ ft depending on frequency of sonar, temperature, etc. as you said.
However, this thing goes 500 feet. If it is able to pierce the thermal layer, as well as do what it needs to do, why go any deeper?
In a fight, I'd imagine a large sub would get hit a lot anyway, so it almost seems pointless to create massive subs that can go the same depths as smaller subs can, just to fight, as the larger sub would be much easier to hit.
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