From:	Marc A Renouf <jormung@*****.umich.edu>
Subject:	Re: Naval units (was Re: Killing in Shadowrun...)
Date:	Tue, 28 May 1996 09:35:55 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 27 May 1996, Paul J. Adam wrote:

> >Maritime nations such as UCAS and
> >Imperial Japan may build submarine aircraft carriers, especially in the
> >face of orbital weaponry.
>
> 1956 study for a submersible aircraft carrier: 40,000 tons, nulcear
> propulsion, submerged speed five knots (had to be optimised for surface
> handling and stability), aircraft complement six STOL fighters.
> (Submarine Design and Development, Norman Friedman)
>
> Submarines are far too tightly volume limited to be useful aircraft
> carriers.

An interesting study. Actually, if you scrap the idea of making
long-distance "power-projection" (which is what the aircraft carrier is
good at) and load the thing with a whole mess of small attack
helicopters (Apache, Pave-Low, Longbow, etc.), you could make a sub
carrier that packed a tremendous wallop over ground and was sneaky to
boot. Arguably, however, you could do the same thing by gutting an Ohio
class of its ballistic capabilities and packing it full of vertically
launched, long-range cruise missiles.

> >Surface ships with advanced hullforms (SWATH,
> >Seaknife, or SES) may enjoy a burst speed advantage over submersibles
> >(which cannot exceed a certain velocity due to cavitation stresses on the
> >hull), which will help them in antisubmarine warfare,
>
> Doesn't matter: this is why you embark a helicopter or two. When you're
> moving that fast you're blind, and by closing to attack over-the-side
> you expose yourself to attack: better to put your weapon on a platform
> the submarine cannot attack, together with sensors to localise and
> classify vague contacts.

Actually, the Soviets (when they still *were* Soviets)
experimented with a pretty rude weapon. It was a modified man-pack SA-7
Grail launcher mounted onto the periscope mast. The object of the unit
was to be able to spot, acquire, and launch a small SAM at offending ASW
choppers. They didn't have a whole lot of success with it, but that was
mainly due to the fact that the thing was based off a Grail system (lame)
and was basically jury-rigged together and held on with gum and baling
wire. If this concept were seriously studied, it's entirely possible
that subs could be death to aerial search platforms.

Marc