New Fast-Attack Nuclear Submarines to be Named Arizona and Oklahoma

[Bob DBF]

Still a far cry from the Polaris boats that had to stay within 1,400-2,500 miles of their targets though.

It was rather exciting at times.

 

[Jared0425]

I meant more permissive in terms of the threat environment. In the late 90s when Big Red was written the PLAN had a whopping five SSNs that were regarded as extremely noisy, the Russian Navy was struggling to maintain a handful of SSN patrols, and in general we thought the Cold War days were over for good. In that environment, coming up to PD in the open ocean to make sure launch orders received over VLF were real was a sound precaution. Nowadays the other guys have more and better SSNs at sea than they did 20 years ago and the international situation is more tense; sticking a radio mast up while on patrol is a bit riskier. Still a far cry from the Polaris boats that had to stay within 1,400-2,500 miles of their targets though.

Currently looking for good books or written sources on the Chinese missile boats. I built a model of a Type 94 SSBN about 7 months ago. It's kinda of a Delta ripoff, but their newer stuff will be interesting to see. I will build a Ohio Class after my state, the USS Michigan.

 

[Akimbo]

I built a model of a Type 94 SSBN about 7 months ago.

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[HalcyonDaze]

Currently looking for good books or written sources on the Chinese missile boats. I built a model of a Type 94 SSBN about 7 months ago. It's kinda of a Delta ripoff, but their newer stuff will be interesting to see. I will build a Ohio Class after my state, the USS Michigan.

Not sure about written; the PLAN has managed to be remarkably opaque about what they're building. As far as I know, the Type 094 is their current SSBN class; this is possibly the best short primer I've seen on their submarine inventory:



On the subject of YouTube sources, I'd avoid Sub Brief; that channel was the one that hyped the "Thresher's crew survived a day after contact was lost" story and is still hyping how many clicks he got from it; after that and a few smaller flubs I'd rate his "expertise" as maybe slightly better informed than the average basement-dwelling conspiracy nutter.

 

[Jared0425]

On the subject of YouTube sources, I'd avoid Sub Brief; that channel was the one that hyped the "Thresher's crew survived a day after contact was lost" story and is still hyping how many clicks he got from it; after that and a few smaller flubs I'd rate his "expertise" as maybe slightly better informed than the average basement-dwelling conspiracy nutter.

Thanks for the video. I wonder his reasoning of the crew surviving at about 6X the subs crush depth? What an asinine opinion.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Thanks for the video. I wonder his reasoning of the crew surviving at about 6X the subs crush depth? What an asinine opinion.

The only "reasoning" was proclaiming USS Seawolf (SSN-575)'s logs of hearing faint hull tapping and sonar pings as gospel and the Navy's dismissal of them as an insidious govenment coverup. As I recall, Seawolf was unable to make out a coherent message or elicit a response, and when they asked the other rescue ships in the area to stop using their active sonar they couldn't hear anything. Amick of Sub Brief jumps to concluding that meant Thresher was somehow still intact with survivors (either somehow floating neutral above collapse depth for ~24 hours or even more improbably, after it had scattered itself across ~33 acres of seafloor ~8,400 ft down) instead of what the Navy - and the former officers who pushed to get those logs declassified, who state as such in the presentation I linked earlier - concluded: Seawolf's crew was running on adrenaline and hope and misinterpreted ambient noise as signs of life. It would be one thing if he had revised that video or taken it down in light of the problems with it, but the fact that months later he's gloating about how many clicks it's gotten and commenters are still praising him for "exposing" a "cover-up" moves him into the realm of exploitative ghoul in my book.

Amick's made other slips, like claiming the Russian Typhoon-class had a "perfect" safety record despite this whopper of a near-miss being known: The Harrowing Tale Of The Nuke-Laden Russian Typhoon Class Sub That Almost Sunk In 1991

 

[Bob DBF]

It would be one thing if he had revised that video or taken it down in light of the problems with it, but the fact that months later he's gloating about how many clicks it's gotten and commenters are still praising him for "exposing" a "cover-up" moves him into the realm of exploitative ghoul in my book.

Well, he does make his living off of the internet and gaming. He was one of the sonar girls when he rode the boats, so he should know better than passing off that crap. I would assume it was intentional.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Very good piece from a former S-3 Viking sensor operator on the challenges of hunting non-nuclear subs: The Navy Isn't Prepared To Face The Growing Diesel Submarine Threat

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Speaking of PLAN missile subs ... New Chinese Ballistic Missile Submarines Could Strike U.S. Without Traveling Into Pacific

 

[Jared0425]

@Akimbo

I normally don't paint my models as I use them for test platforms or demonstration purposes, but my friend who builds diorama's came over with a compressed air paint gun and did this all himself. For a 1/350 model it came out good.

Here is my next project with an Arleigh Burke Gen II