Chapter 1802 Don’t Dare to Save That Ship
Many people think that the deeper a submarine dives, the better. In fact... this is really not necessary.
Submarines navigate the seabed to avoid detection by surface ships, but surface ships rarely carry underwater radars that can detect depths below 100 meters. Diving that deep only increases the danger.
Submarine navigation is essentially like a blind man groping in the dark. Even with sonar and other navigational aids, it's still incredibly dangerous. A familiarity with the seabed is essential for safe navigation. Otherwise, why would Western ships keep venturing off the coast of Daxia? Do they really think they're just there to see the sights?
However, many times their efforts are in vain.
In Daxia, due to the vast sea area, countless crises are hidden under the calm waters. The country is naturally not just sitting there doing nothing. It has established a complete intelligence and early warning mechanism and opened up a maritime people's defense line mechanism.
The backbone of this people's maritime defense line is the fishermen of Daxia: basically, when a foreign ship enters Daxia, a bunch of fishing boats have already followed it!
They were hoping these foreign ships were out to cause trouble: salvaging suspicious underwater devices was more profitable than fishing! Over the years, fishermen had pulled up all sorts of things offshore: sonar equipment, underwater drones, cable-controlled underwater robots, fish, sonar buoys...
These things have greatly improved the technological level of Daxia! In 1978, fishermen caught an unexploded MK46 torpedo, and the domestically produced Yu-7 torpedo was born.
As for submarines? There was actually an incident where an Australian submarine was caught in a fishing net...
Submarines aren't as powerful as you might imagine. If they dive within 20 meters, they can be spotted by satellites and airplanes. Beyond 35 meters, they're difficult to detect with optical equipment, but not impossible. They have to dive to around 70 meters, and with the help of submarine coatings, they become difficult to detect. And if they dive within 100 meters, they can be spotted by underwater radar or narrow-band optical equipment. And if they dive deeper than 100 meters...
Sorry, most of Daxia's coastline is continental shelf waters, and most of the coastline is less than 100 meters deep. Our own submarines are not afraid of this depth, but other countries' submarines have a headache! For example, many areas of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea are less than 10 or 20 meters deep. Do you really think the "kelp wrapped around an aircraft carrier" statement from the Director is a joke?
As for the southern seas, although they are deeper, defenses there are more stringent. Currently, some narrow-band optical equipment can directly detect submarines at depths of 200 meters. Furthermore, submarine detection currently relies primarily on magnetic anomaly detectors. This involves flying anti-submarine aircraft along the Earth's magnetic field lines, using the aircraft's magnetic field detectors to locate submarines. If there is any magnetic field interference, the submarine will be detected.
Theoretically, there's no depth limit for detecting submarines using magnetic anomaly detectors. However, due to current technological limitations, the detection depth of anti-submarine aircraft is generally limited to 900 meters. Even strategic nuclear submarines can typically only dive to 600 meters, making them easily detectable by anti-submarine aircraft.
Of course, anti-submarine aircraft have their limitations, such as limited detection range. To address this, countries are now developing submarine fiber-optic hydrophones. These use highly sensitive optical coherence detection to convert underwater acoustic vibrations into optical signals. Signal processing systems then extract the acoustic signals to detect submarine movements. However, due to cost constraints, this approach is more commonly used for near-shore defense.
However, under this series of anti-submarine measures, there is really no need for submarines to dive too deep, and many times it is just "covering one's ears and stealing the bell".
There is also another problem when a submarine dives too deep, which is the problem of weapon launch.
Today's submarines generally have submarine-launched vertical missile launchers, which means that the submarine launches the missile vertically out of the water from the bottom of the sea and then the missile starts to fly and attack the target.
The problem is that when a vertical missile launcher is launched from a submarine, the missile does not ignite. Instead, high-pressure gas is injected into the launcher to propel the missile out of the water, and ignition only occurs after the missile emerges from the water. If the submarine is too deep under the sea for the high-pressure gas to propel the missile vertically out of the water, how can the missile be ignited and launched?
Therefore, when launching missiles, they must maintain the submarine at an appropriate launch depth. If it dives too deep, it must surface. (Incidentally, this method of submarine-launched missiles was also invented by the former Soviet Union.) So diving too deep is really unnecessary. Of course, the submarine's ability to "attack the enemy by surprise" is also an undeniable advantage. Improving anti-submarine capabilities has become a matter of consideration for military developers around the world.
So is there a way for submarines to avoid being tracked by anti-submarine aircraft? Of course there is!
The first method is "physical avoidance": submarines are hidden under the Arctic ice, so how can anti-submarine aircraft work? This is why the strategic nuclear submarines of the two major powers during the Cold War were all in the Arctic.
As for the second method, only the "simple and crude" Russians would do this.
The Russians' approach to weapon design was this: What if an aircraft is afraid of anti-aircraft missiles? Just fly higher than the missiles. What if an aircraft is afraid of air-to-air missiles? Just fly faster than the missiles. This was the basis for the design of the MiG-25 fighter jet.
So what if submarines are afraid of anti-submarine aircraft? Isn't the detection depth of anti-submarine aircraft 900 meters? If we dive the submarine to 1,000 meters, won't it be safe?
The Komsomolskaya Sembawang submarine was designed with this in mind. It is the world's first and only nuclear submarine capable of diving to depths of 1,000 meters.
It is estimated that apart from the Soviet Union, no country in the world would think of using titanium alloys for making spacecraft to manufacture nuclear submarines. In addition to being able to withstand high pressure, titanium alloys also have the advantage of low magnetism, which can reduce the chance of being detected by magnetic detectors on anti-submarine aircraft. That "Komsomol nuclear submarine" is more expensive than gold of the same weight!
Their efforts were worth it: this submarine boasts world-leading technology: the deepest, fastest, and quietest nuclear submarine ever built. After commissioning, it was tasked with monitoring NATO naval exercises. It conducted several missions without NATO detecting it.
However, a few years after entering service, the submarine sank at a depth of 1,600 meters in the high seas north of Norway due to a short circuit and fire. It is considered the most famous ship to sink within the Arctic Circle.
However, if this time they wanted Xiao Peng to salvage the "Communist Youth League Member" for them, Xiao Peng would refuse without hesitation.
The difficulty of salvaging this submarine is immense. Can it be salvaged using current technology? Yes! However, salvaging it without damaging it is practically impossible.
This submarine not only has a former Soviet Union's world-leading liquid metal reactor, but also two nuclear bombs. God knows if the nuclear reactor is leaking now...
Nuclear pollution is no joke!
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