# Astute Class Submarines



## Foxbat (May 16, 2018)

It's official. I'm a Navy Nerd. Not only that but I love big complicated bits of engineering, and very few come as complicated as the Royal Navy's Astute Class hunter/killer subs. 

They're the most powerful attack submarines ever built by Britain and can circumnavigate the world fully submerged. The nuclear reactor is designed to last the expected 25 year life span of the boat and these subs have been called the 'greatest threat to the Russian navy'. According to builders BAE, the Astute class has the most advanced sonar in the world and backing this claim up is how well the submarine did in a cat-and-mouse game with Virginia Class USS New Mexico at exercise Fellowship in 2012. Designed to test the submarines and their capabilities against each other, Astute more than held its own against its American equivelant.
Navy News - Reporting from the Fleet






Notice how in the above picture Reactor section D is opaque(classified).
The Astute class, Britain's advanced hunter killer


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## HareBrain (May 16, 2018)

"When armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Artful can strike targets up to 1,200km from the coast with pinpoint accuracy."

Why would the distance from the coast matter to a sub-based missile? Do its guidance systems depend on land-based stations?


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## Overread (May 16, 2018)

It kind of matters because the Arful can only get as close as the shore allows to any land based target and might even be on the wrong side of a land mass (ergo not at the closest possible distance to the coast to the target).


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## HareBrain (May 16, 2018)

Wait, so is it the target that's up to 1,200km from the coast, or Artful? Should it read "can strike targets from a position up to 1,200km from the coast"?

At the moment it's suggesting that if Artful and the target are both in the middle of the Atlantic, the strike might not be accurate.


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## Vertigo (May 16, 2018)

No it doesn't say it's firing up to 1,200km _from _the coast; to me it clearly reads that the target can be up to 1,200km inland.


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## Foxbat (May 16, 2018)

HareBrain said:


> Wait, so is it the target that's up to 1,200km from the coast, or Artful? Should it read "can strike targets from a position up to 1,200km from the coast"?
> 
> At the moment it's suggesting that if Artful and the target are both in the middle of the Atlantic, the strike might not be accurate.


I think it's badly worded. Tomahawk is a land attack missile and wouldn't be used against a ship so it wouldn't be used against a target in the middle of the Atlantic - unless, of course, it was a target on an island


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## HareBrain (May 16, 2018)

I've only ever heard the phrase "from the coast" to mean out to sea. Otherwise it's "inland". You might be right about what they intend to say, though why not just say it's got a 1200km range? What difference does the coast make?

ETA: cross-posted with Foxbat. OK, fair enough.


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## Vertigo (May 16, 2018)

Yeah I agree it's badly worded!


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## Jeffbert (Jun 7, 2018)

I had a friend who was a sonar tech on an attack sub. Never go to a movie about subs with an ex-submariner. He will constantly critique this & that as being unrealistic. 

So, is this just one sub, or an entire class of them?


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