Submarine speeds

Well I know of a certain skipper in the RAN who loves water skiing so much that he busted an engine running at full speed on the surface with himself and nine others in trail with ropes lashed to the conning tower 😉 But of cousre, this is all condifential (wink wink, nudge nudge)

Bah. 😛 with 24 Granits who cares 😉 Fire them off before anyone knows and then run to port 🙂

That one has two propellors too and two nuclear reactors, I suppose if you put enough powder behind a tanker it will reach 35kts too. The propellors are btw. a reason for it’s larger noise signature too, by causing much more cavitation… That’s probably the reason why US ALWAYS have one single prop!

What about a good old Oscar II? I’ve seen speeds of 32knots listed.. and that sub is like 3 LAs.

Normally I would credit the LA class with the highest speeds for current submarines. Probably indeed between 35-40kts. Akula probably has something like 32-35kts too. The best underwater shape is the cilinder, that is why merchant vessels still have roundings on their bottom. A rectangular shape would allow them to carry a larger volume, but to achieve more speed, you need a round shape. Since a round shape would be very bad for stability and internal volume, they chose the regular ship shape.
Akula seems to have a better sail, but that is probably caused by her higher hullshape. Yet of course her hull is not cilindrical, and I suppose that would make her slightly slower than LA. NOT SURE about this of course, since I’m not in their development…
I don’t know why they don’t use propellor tunnels either. I suppose the pumpjet has about the same effect of such a propellor tunnel, but normally these tunnels are used with normal props. They are built like a airplane with, pushing more water inside the tunnel, where the propellor can propel the vessel more efficiently. Or counterrotating props like torpedoes. I have a picture of a merchant vessel already using counterrotating props. Or would that make it too noisy?

Here is some information about the submerged speed of USN submarines:

Ohio class: 25 Kts
Virginia class: 35 kts
Sea Wolf class: 35+ kts
Los Angeles class: 30+ kts

Source: USNI Combat Fleets 2002

According to Tom Clancy’s Submarine book the Los Angeles class is designed to achieve speeds greater than 35 kts submerged.

It’s expected that LA class can go excess of 30kts in most cases I think. Low 30kt should be their maximum speed, 31~33kt or so. Most SSNs stay in this range minus for the French Rubis class and Chinese Han, which uses a bit less efficient propulsion and has around 25kt max speed. Seawolf, with its monster reactor is expected to go beyond 40kts in emergencies. I do not believe same type of reactor was installed on Virginia, so these boats should not go over 35kt, though when they get hydro-dynamically effecient sail it might change fractionally. Astute class has lower power PWR, so maybe 29+kt speed range.

I do find the report a bit strange. 33kt should be near absolute maximum speed LA class can travel with regular crew and arm load. Normal transient speed should not go over 25kts, over 30kt should only be used in emergencies.

I think you should try asking at warships1.com board. Some are ex-USN who’d served on SSNs. While getting an exact answer might be hard, they might point you in the right direction.

Try this website:
www.navy-technology.com
They might have all the information you need to quench your thirst for knowledge. Cheers!

I think you mean; http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/

Thanks, but unfortunately, speeds are not listed there.

Try this website:
www.navy-technology.com
They might have all the information you need to quench your thirst for knowledge. Cheers!