Originally posted by lionnoisy:
[b]undated images of HMS Spartan
2.It seems the images on official site looks bad
3.any problems?The sub was commissined in 1978.
can any navy guys or ship industry experts share here.[/b]
1. this is normal
2. does not look bad. this is normal.
3. no problems [although the trafalgar class [slightly later, improved swiftsure class iirc] were in the press for reactor coolant leaks i think, a few years back]
info:
what you are looking at are the [sometimes made of a rubber material] anechoic tiles.
these are merely stuck onto the vessels hull and are not part of the structure itself.
think of it as stealth for navy vessels.
its not new either as germany tried this out on their uboats back in ww2.
if you look at any in-service photos of naval vessels that use this technology [aside from any thatve just come back from refitting as they will stick new tiles on] you will see similar issues - tiles missing. soviets had alot of issues with the tiles staying on, and it just seems to be 'accepted'. they often dont stick any new ones back on until they feel they really need to.
these tiles do two things: absorb sonar 'pulses' or 'hits' - this means that the vessels have a better chance at not being detected up by opfor sonar/ASW platforms.
They serve to absorb noise from the vessel itself, again helping to reduce the chance of detection by opfor as the usual noises made by men and machinery will be much reduced using these tiles.
they tend to be thicker or of slightly different composition depending on what section of the vessel theyre covering.
but most navies - of both the eastern bloc as well as the western allies, employ this tile tech on their underwater vessels.
sometimes surface ships will have this tech too, on their hulls.
so, no, its nothing to worry about, its perfectly normal.
you can see the relatively recent vanguard SSBN class with lots of missing tiles too.
and ... loooool ... thats not how towed sonar arrays are carried lol.
That is actually project alamnda, fitted a few years ago to allow submerged carriage and transfer of special Forces units and their equipment. the us use these so-called dry decks for special operations.
this is for the british SBS [think SAS for the navy. indeed the SBS share a common history back to ww2 and the SAS would be as unheard of as the SBS if thatcher hadnt asked for them to be used in the iranian embassy siege in the early 80s]. they provide covert projection and insertion capability for swimmers and swimmer delivery vehicles, and would compose fo several sections, one for storage of rigid and non rigid craft, decompression and treatment area, as well as transfer section to the 'mother' submarine.
hope that helps
edit: i see spartan6 already gave info on the tiles.
hms spartan was supposed to have undergone a refit witin the last 3 years, where they would have [amongst other things] replaced the missing tiles, but instead the gov decided to decommission her in 2006, so they dont bother, as well as use her as test facility [for the SBS housing pod]
