inside look at royal navys new sub (video and pics)

Niall197,

I sort of figured that about the periscope. THe first time I saw one of these new fangled periscopes I liked to fell over when I realized that nothing went down into the hull. The periscope is exactly as you described...video..fiber optic. THere are no longer two periscope tubes penetrating the hull where you fold down the handles and make a manual sweep.
The sweep is made electronically ..you hit a button and the scope turns right or left by a motor built into it. THe scope is all above the hull of the boat and raises and lowers normally except that all views of which the scope sees are via video. A hard copy can be made to disc of everything the scope sees..day and night...a cross the light spectrum. Very fancy very expensive....very exclusive.
This is a great idea on someones part if the bugs get worked out of the system if it has any. Two less openings in the hull where the scopes used to penetrate and have packing holding back the sea water. I mean to tell you...changing out a scope on the olde boats was a bear...a real SOB of a job. You need to be a small guy with arms like the basket ball player Kareem Abdul Jabbar. It is really tight in there. This new system is a big improvement.

As to the "hype" ...yeah ..I hear the same thing with the Virginia class boats. I do know that Sonar and sonar tech have made a huge quantum leap in the digital age. Those kinds of statements you made or quote ...you need to know somethings in order to read between the lines on all the "hype."
Same thing about a boat being to quiet. I've heard that one too.
Think this through very very carefully.

Once again ..great pictures,
Thanks,
Orangetom

An analogy - how LW radar can track stealth - it doesn`t look for whats there - it looks for whats not there , and so can track the moving hole

The russians have been tracking stealth for years using this - the trick though is of course getting something to shoot at it - as LW radar can`t.