An x-submariner looks at it

My last sailboat had downward sonar (depth gauge) and forward looking sonar for going into an anchorage. I assume these low current devices are not stealthy. I can understand a sub switching these off in time of war or when in foreign waters and wanting to be stealthy, but why not use them for the rest of the time? Obviously I am a pilot who can sail, but not a submariner! But is there a balance between safety and stealthiness?

Even in peacetime, attack submarines spend their time doing stuff they don't want anyone else to see. How better to practice tracking and getting into position to attack an adversary, than doing it for real? How better to gather sonar and other data on your counterpart's vessels and capabilities? This is no secret; everyone's doing it, everyone knows everyone's doing it, and there are some pretty good books on the subject.

I should imagine the holy grail of underwater warfare is being able to track and take out your adversary's SSBNs, so you can bet there's a lot of effort going into this; if anyone does have that capability, you're not going to read about it for a very long time...

Please list some of these pretty good books. Thanks

"The Silent Deep" by Jinks and Hennessey is the most comprehensive account I've read; if you're only going to read one book about submarines, this would be my recommendation.
"Blind Man's Bluff" is also a pretty good read, a bit lighter, with more of a focus on cable-tapping operations.

Pasta is correct - all submarine arms spend their time trying on sneaking around. TF reminds us of the Soviet navies efforts in Sweden and of course the Finns often seem to have "unknown objects" wandering about their waters.

The British and the French managed a collision a few years back and there are stories, sometimes published as part of someone's obituary, about some scary close encounters in the past.

No-one talks about today of course but you can bet it's going on 24/7

And the Royal Navy presumably still has shares in plywood and black paint so they can pretend it didn't happen - and I don't mean Ambush, Astute, Vanguard, Superb or Trafalgar.

It is something it has Talent for but then that wasn't the first time either.

Have you considered that might be the next logical step for you? In progression of interests and hobbies. :}

Ordered on Kindle just now.
The Secret State was good - so looking forward to this.

Knew I had this filed away somewhere. From October, 1968;

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5a6521fb54.jpg

Recounted in reasonable detail from p311 in my copy of "The Silent Deep"

(For clarity, that's the HMS Warspite incident)

HMS Sceptre also had a close encounter with an iceberg (aka K-211) that required the use of the battleshort to sort the situation out.

I would imagine one reason is you would want your vessels operating in or near their wartime areas, thus if the poo did hit the fan and rapidly escalate literally in days, the boat would be where it was needed, not having to fast track there. Hence you wouldn’t want to announce your position.

Hennessy is brilliant, a historian of modern times, using modern language and a tinge of humour.
A very few days into the Chinese Plague he was interviewed by the Beeb. He said [I summarise badly] that history would be seen for many years as BC and AC ...... before Covid, and After it struck. He basically said this is the big one, the global consequences will be severe and are unknowable.

And here we are, 2 years in, with "crises" not just here but [ill-reported] just about everywhere: supply chains, shortages, civil disobedience, balances of power upset, .....

A brilliant man, the pre-eminent historian of modern Britain.

"..... the 20,000,000 nuclear submarine Warspite...." Looks like the creators of HMS Vigil must have learned from that.....:ugh:

Jack

I think a '£' is missing from the front of that number.

A lot of RN submarines hit 'ice' over the years. 'Ice' often had a Russian accent.

An interesting one of late
Navy officers deny a submarine sank the fishing boat 17 years ago (msn.com)

Funnily enough I was watching an old episode of Kavanaugh QC the other day and the story was about a trawler lost with her crew. The owner and other locals started a conspiracy theory that there had been a collision with a submarine, but he had sent a non seaworthy boat to sea and sabotaged her for the insurance money.. I was reminded of the tragic loss of the Fishing Vessel Pescado.

As for submarines in deep water, see - Why Billion Dollar Nuclear Submarines Still Run Into Things Underwater.

In February this year a surfacing Japanese submarine in home waters hit the hull of a Chinese container ship right above.
Take your pick of the various news source interpretations from factual to derisory.
https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=su...&client=safari

Seamount
 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...j0kOzVUw7vYm5s


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....19c335be8.jpeg

shades of the late Clive Cussler first novel


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....efafa5a7b.jpeg

cheers