Titan: Two shipyard workers, to the lower left of the huge propellor show the enormous scale of HMS Ambush, which is launched this week
Posted on 12/13/2010 10:32:31 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Set to launch, our nuclear Leviathan: The enormous scale of the biggest submarine ever built in Britain
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:31 AM on 14th December 2010
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. OuHer 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 the New York Harbour. A true titan of the deep, the £1.2 billion 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Titan: Two shipyard workers, to the lower left of the huge propellor show the enormous scale of HMS Ambush, which is launched this week
? This isn’t nearly as big as our nukes.
I watched them launch the first trident class. The USS Ohio.
The thing is huge. It had to be 6 story’s tall
My elder boy just returned to civilian life after serving his enlistment on the Ohio as a nuke.
It was rebuilt a couple of years ago. I went on board while they were working on it out at Bremerton and all I can say is “holy moly”.
It’s about the same size as our attack subs, and a bit under half the size of our boomers...
“Ambush” Gotta love the Brit ship names!
That’s a GOOD Son.
Agreed, I am not sure, but looks the same as the Tridents.
;-)
Agreed! One of their many fine traditions!
The largest submarine in the world is the Mk 941-U SSBN (Strategic Submarine Ballistic Nuclear) Typhoon’, of the Shark (Akula) - class. For this, it has been included in the Guinness Record Book at the beginning of the 1980s.
Only six of them were built at the naval base in Severodvinsk and they were designed as a response to the US’s construction of the first Ohio nuclear submarine with 24 ballistic missiles on board. The Russians succeeded in surpassing the Ohio, and the Mk 941-U SSBN Typhoon is, even today, the largest submarine in the world.
The dimensions of this leviathan are truly impressive. It’s 564 feet long (172 meters), has a beam of 74.8 feet (22.8 meters), and an underwater displacement of 50,000 tons. The maximum speed is over 30 knots and it can stay submerged for 120 days, with a maximum crew complement of 130.
Its weaponry is also impressive. For close combat, it’s got two torpedo tubes (one 533-mm torpedo tube and one 650-mm torpedo tube) and can carry up to 36 torpedoes at a time. Even more dangerous is the long-range nuclear arsenal it packs, 24 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) replete with 10 nuclear warheads each. These have a range of up to 10,000 km (6,213 miles).
Typhoon-Ohio-Oscar2-Akula-U212
This looks like the same approx. size of the sub that picks up Alec Baldwin in the Hunt For Red October - or am I land lubber wrong?
In Red Storm Rising, the American destroyer USS Reuben James rendezvous with the British destroyer HMS Battleaxe.
The Brits signal, "What's a Reuben James?" to which the American commander replies, "At least we don't name our ships after our mothers-in-law."
I first saw the Ohio when it was heading for Pearl Harbor. I was the watch officer on the USAV John U. D. Page, west of Molokai heading for Pearl. The Ohio was between Molokai and Oahu running on the surface. Even at a range of 10 miles it was huge.
Thats because it isnt a boomer. Its a nuclear powered attack submarine, and at 9000 tons, its comparable to a Los Angeles class.
"Ambush" is due out on December 16th (another fine tradition is that they are always launched on a Thursday). I will try and take some pictures.
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