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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| StrategyPage: Kilos Headed for China in a Hurry |
| 2005-06-01 |
| Russia is sending China the second of eight new Kilo class submarines this month. All eight boats are expected to be in service by next year. This is somewhat faster than expected. The Kilo is the best diesel-electric submarine the Russians have ever produced. Developed at the end of the Cold War (the 1980s), the design has undergone improvements since then. The Kilo is a 2,300 ton (surface displacement) boat with six torpedo tubes and a crew of 57. It is very quiet, and can travel about 700 kilometers under water at a quiet speed of about five kilometers an hour. Kilos carry 18 torpedoes or SS-N-27 anti-ship missiles (with a range of 300 kilometers and launched underwater from the torpedo tubes.) The combination of quietness and cruise missiles makes Kilo very dangerous to American carriers. The SS-N-27 has a half ton warhead, which won't sink a carrier, but could easily shut down aircraft operations for a while. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #7 A submarine of any sort is a potent weapon only if the crew is trained through constant operational activity. Attacking a carrier battlegroup with an attached submarine asset and hordes of heliocopters isn't the same as blowing a bugle and swarming out of the Rat's Nest to rush the Pork Chop. The Chinese submariners will take up permanent residence in Bikini Bottom before they arrive within 200NM of a carrier task force. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-06-01 22:13 |
| #6 after a lot of dead first line experienced chinese submariners...who's the second line? you don't get good by just saying so... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-01 20:06 |
| #5 The Aussies have gotten kill shots on CVNs with diesel boats in blue water exercises. With time the Chinese will learn how to also. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-06-01 18:33 |
| #4 We have some pretty effective anti-sub stuff in our carrier battlegroups. We have nuke boats which are even quieter, we have destroyers, planes, helicopters and sonar bouys. I just don't think a Kilos gonna get a killshot on a carrier. They'd be far more productive as a threat to shipping than a reality as crushed metal on the seafloor. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-06-01 18:18 |
| #3 That'n that spooky mobile sosus thingy. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-01 13:46 |
| #2 Diesel subs can be very deadly. They operate best in "Brown Water" environments where they can lay in wait for a ship to come by. Our sonar systems can not detect them very well and so the US navy tries to keep their "Blue Water" fleet in the deep where the diesels don't work very well. Last I heard, the US was developing more fast attack boats to hunt diesel subs and provide assistance to special forces operations. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-06-01 11:03 |
| #1 I don't buy that the Kilo is a huge threat to US carriers. I wouldn't throw them away against a US task force. I would scatter them in packs as a threat to US/Taiwan/Japan shipping worldwide to help convince said powers that it's too expensive to fight for Taiwan. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-06-01 10:05 |