This is the headline on Foxnews.com:
How do two nuclear submarines carrying state-of-the-art sonar equipment bump into each other?
I'll tell you how. First of all, it was a British and French sub. That's the biggest reason. The other reason is these things are super fast. On the record, most say a speed of 45 knots/52mph is attainable. Off the record, waaaay faster. In fact, sailors on the USS Seawolf created an acronym for high level of speed, as during Bravo testing, the Seawolf had parts fall off due to the high rate of speed. SFFSFO (So *ucking Fast *hit Falls Off). Can you imagine being in a submarine traveling at speeds in excess of 60 mph? That seems incredibly unsafe considering you're being powered by nuclear energy. That boat was comissioned in 1957. If *hit falls off a boat from speed in 1957, imagine what top speeds are today?
1 comment:
Well you got the acronym correct, but the commissioning year was wrong. There were actaully 4 submarines named seawolf, the SS-28 during WW1, SS-197 during WW2, SSN-575 the second nuke boar ever and the only one with a liquid sodium reactor, and the current SSN-21 (I was on this crew). The current once which coined SFFSFO was launced in 97, you gave the date for the 575 boat. And your are correct, the speed is higher than advertised, but not that fast. And subs bump each other because they are trying to be quiet. Its a big ocean, but it happens sometimes.
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