Re: limiting factors for sea endurance of submarines


"Joachim Schmid" <E94lebt@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e2u6u8$jsj$02$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So I want to ask the people with knowledge or personal experience here:
1) Which is actually the limiting factor for long-time missions of _modern_
submarines - fuel, food, or crew endurance?

I am an old Polaris sailor, and we were told (and I believe, having been
there) that the limiting factor is human factors.


2) Which reasons led to the 90 days of typical mission length für a US SSN?

Well, I can tell you why the 90-day cycle is/was the normal deal for an
SSBN. It is the above mentioned human factors, the fact that things start
breaking and need maintenance after a few weeks at sea, and the simple fact the
three divides nicely into 12, giving each crew two deployments per year and an
easily predictible schedule.

Vaughn



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