Posted on 09/25/2015 7:52:48 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
America's most advanced nuclear submarine was slicing through the water off Hawaii last month, 400 feet under the surface, when a sonar operator suddenly detected an ominous noise on his headphones.
It was a faint thump … thump … thump — the distinctive sound of a spinning, seven-bladed propeller on a Chinese attack submarine called a Shang by the Pentagon and its allies.
A neon green stripe on his sonar screen indicated that the Shang was only a few thousand yards off the U.S. sub's bow.
"Sonar contact!" he yelled to 15 officers and crew in the dimly lighted control room. "All stations, analyze!"
Within seconds, the 377-foot-long Mississippi banked right and gunned its nuclear-powered propulsion system for one of the Navy's most difficult maneuvers: sneaking up behind another submarine and shadowing it without being detected.
Fortunately, the Mississippi was chasing a phantom, not a real Chinese sub. A digital recording of a Shang's audio signature had been piped through the U.S. sub's sonar system for a training exercise.
But the battle drill seemed urgently real: The mock Shang's course and speed were automatically fed into the Mississippi's targeting computers, the first step to launching one of its 27 torpedoes, something no U.S. sub has done against an adversary since World War II.
This is the largely unseen effect of the Obama administration's decision to send its newest vessels and warplanes to Asia over the last four years, a strategic rebalance intended in part to reassure Asian allies nervous about China's growing clout.
It has increased cat-and-mouse jockeying between the two largest navies in the Pacific, especially their growing submarine fleets. They track each other and train to fight with the same intensity of U.S. subs that once prepared to battle the Soviet Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The Navy’s Virginia-class fast-attack submarine is its newest and most technologically advanced. Its quiet nuclear-powered propulsion system and sensitive sonar are designed for tracking other subs and warships. The Navy has 12 of the subs and plans to acquire at least 30.
I have never, ever, set foot on a sub before. I'll guess that there's not much yelling, though, since it would defeat the purpose of a billion dollars worth of quiet tech.
Can any FReepers with dolphins comment?
I've never been on a submarine, but that's what they always say in the movies.....
No whistling either ;-)
I hope we never have a real war with nuke powered ships/subs because seafood will not be fit to eat for many millennia.
No dolphins, but know a lot of bubble heads.Pretty much library voice all the time is what I’m told.
Then after firing the torpedi the skipper looks surprised and does a double take and looks again thru the periscope and announces to the crew that they just blew up a truck. This after the torpedo missed the ship they were aiming at and ran up shore.... I saw this in a wartime documentary called “ Operation Petticoat”.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053143/trivia
Do you know how many sub-surface nuclear test detonations have occurred?
I delivered mail to one about 25 miles off the coast of Sasebo, Japan in 1970. I remember it was raining hard and was a long ride in the Mike boat. So, I found myself a comfortable spot down in amongst the mailbags and pulled a tarp over me. The boat driver was Japanese and did not speak English.
After approximately an hour or so, we came to a stop. With no wind it was quiet. Then I heard a noise like a waterfall and jumped up to look. About a hundred feet away was a US Sub. As close as we were it looked enormous.
My primary purpose that night was to deliver Registered Mail which Navy Regulation back then permitted only US. citizens to do. This took a while and so they served me a steak and egg breakfast while I was waiting. Best job in the Navy is Postal Clerk. Everybody loves you and Nobody messes with you!
“Conn, Sonar, I hold a new contact bearing 253. Contact is possible submarine based on suppressed cavitation, (and maybe a few other things I can’t mention). Designate Sierra one five” The OOD will take it from there. And “Gunning the Nuclear Engines”? Really? Hunt for Red October had better dialogue.
"Yell" is probably too strong a word; I would more accurately say that an operator "announced" or "declared" a possible contact. Even still, the sound of someone's voice would not readily be detected through the air inside, and then through the walls of a sub. human voice just isn't loud enough to propagate like that.
Didn't have dolphins, but was a sonar tech on the surface.
You are pretty much right except that would be “compressed” cavitation.
OOD would say something like “Ahead two thirds, Helm come right heading 220”
I am STSCS(SS), USN, Ret.
Agree. Not polite to “Yell”
Sonar used to use an announcing system (27MC).
On the newer boats, I understand that Sonar operators are in the control room.
I am STSCS(SS), USN, Ret.
Surface puke here, too. DLG-34 was my home for four years, ‘67-’70. SQS-26 BX sonar.
Within seconds, the 377-foot-long Mississippi banked right and gunned its nuclear-powered propulsion system for one of the Navy's most difficult maneuvers: sneaking up behind another submarine and shadowing it without being detected.
Doing a KRAZY IVAN!
Thanks for your service, Senior Chief...love your tagline, too!
It was in a Cary Grant/Tony Curtis movie called operation petticoat.
Same to you, Shipmate.
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