How tall is a nuclear submarine

Richard Horn — Apr 8th, Never call a submarine a ship - it's considered an insult to submariners. Surface vessels are called ships; submarines are boats. But by contrast a surface vessel, like the fast combat support ships based in Bremerton, weighs about 53, tons. The two crews rotate duties; while one takes the boat to sea, the other trains and prepares for its next day patrol. The nine bunks are stacked three high along the silos and the back wall of each cubicle.

About , individual meals are served to a crew during a typical patrols. Canberra wants attack subs -- the jack-of-all-trades backbones of the US and UK sub fleets.

The US has three classes of attack subs in its fleet of The newest of these are the 19 of what's called Virginia class. Armed with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles and torpedoes, the foot, 8,ton Virginia-class subs can cruise at more than 28 mph 46 kph and stay submerged indefinitely. Their time underwater is limited only by the need to resupply provisions for the crew of The sub doesn't even have a periscope.

Rather it uses a photonics mast -- a piece of electronic wizardry that includes high-definition and infrared video -- to monitor the battlespace. The information is displayed on large screens in the command center, with a joystick controlling the whole show. The UK's four Astute-class attack subs are even faster than the US subs, capable of more than 35 mph 56 kph submerged, and like the US carry the Tomahawk cruise missile.

It has a longer range than its predecessors well in excess of 1, miles , can be directed at a new target in mid-flight, and can also beam back images of the battlefield to its mother submarine," the Royal Navy's website says. That's the kind of firepower and endurance Australia wants as it looks to protect its northern waters from any naval threats and project its naval power into the South China Sea, where it, along with the United States, looks to blunt Chinese influence and protect freedom of navigation.

Ballistic missile submarines. Their mission, essentially, is to stay at sea for months at a time, the vast majority of it submerged, and be prepared to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike should an adversary launch one of their own against the UK or US.

The ballistic-missile submarine USS Pennsylvania returns home to its Washington state homeport following a strategic deterrence patrol in Ballistic missile subs are quiet beneath the waves and extremely hard to detect. They are the linchpin of deterrence, assuring that an adversary of the US or UK would pay a horrific price for a first-strike nuclear attack. Each of the US ballistic missile subs can carry 20 Trident missiles 16 for the UK subs with as many as eight warheads three for the UK subs per missile.

They are able to be shot over a range of 4, miles 7, kilometers. Indeed, the distance by sea from the South China Sea to Darwin is slightly shorter than that from either Perth or Sydney. Following the war, Australia turned to the United States for strategic defense throughout the Cold War and the years thereafter.

According to them, the United States was becoming a less reliable ally for Australia—too preoccupied by its adventures in the Middle East and subsequent retrenchment to devote enough attention or resources to Indo-Pacific security. Thus, in the late s, some Australian strategic thinkers began to believe that a change in Australian foreign policy was in order. But in , momentum toward that end staggered as a growing number of revelations about Chinese interference in Australian society, including its political system, came to light.

And finally, as if to confirm Australian unease, Beijing then sought to punish Australia with boycotts and trade disruptions for its support of an investigation into the origins of the COVID pandemic. Not surprisingly, Australian affinity for China abruptly cooled. Australia would have to do more for its own defense. That, in the end, is what motivated Australian leaders to select a nuclear-powered design over a conventionally powered one for the submarines in that fleet.

For Australia, the importance of its future submarines is difficult to overstate. The requirements appeared to have centered on three key features: power, range, and speed. Canberra settled the requirement for power early on. The operational advantages of nuclear-powered submarines have long been clear. The biggest one is probably their unlimited range.

They never have to be refueled during their to year service life. Another advantage is their ability to stealthily sail at high speeds, rapidly reaching trouble spots.

Even the most advanced diesel-electric submarine would require at least 7. Moreover, once a nuclear-powered submarine arrives on station, it can patrol far longer than its diesel-electric counterpart, especially in distant waters.