Re: limiting factors for sea endurance of submarines

"Vaughn Simon" <vaughnsimonHATESSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:
:"Fred J. McCall" <fmccall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
:news:hqk552ll68n4u5aaimk7v5iag9uak1fdmc@xxxxxxxxxx
:> "Vaughn Simon" <vaughnsimonHATESSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:>
:>
:> Uh, that doesn't seem to leave any time to fix things that broke on
:> the prior patrol, Simon. It also doesn't leave any handover time,
:> transit time, etc.
:>
:> I think you're remembering incorrectly and that each crew only got one
:> patrol a year. Your way, there is a single day to fix the boat and
:> turn everything over. I think they took longer than that (weeks to
:> months). Plus transit time to and from the patrol areas.
:
: Believe me, I remember correctly. There are some things you never forget,
:and months spent under water is one of them. That said, I wasn't perfecty clear
:in what I wrote earlier. The "90-day patrol cycle" incuded a 30-day refit and
:handover period. The actual patrols varied, but they averaged 60 days under
:water without surfacing. As I said, each crew normally did two patrola per
:year. In contrast, fast attack submarines sometimes "deploy" for much longer
:periods, but those deployments usually include a much more varied routine than
:the SSBNs, including multiple surfacings and (typically) port calls.
:
: When our crew got back to the states, we were immediately granted 30-days
:leave and R&R; we needed it! Even though I was young and resiliant, it took me
:a good ten days to adjust to a 24-hour day (18-hour watch cycle on the sub) and
:get my days and nights in the right place.

I could have sworn that the patrol cycle was more like 105 days or so,
not including handover and refit. As someone mentioned, they seldom
saw being on patrol for the holidays in two consecutive years.

Fast attacks were quite different. I seem to recall PACFLT boats
sometimes doing 7+ month tours out.

--
"This is a war of the unknown warriors; but let all strive
without failing in faith or in duty...."

-- Winston Churchill
.

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