Vanguard subs (a bit OT)

[newshound]

Scroll down to the sub pics, it looks as though they have solar panels!

I guess they are sensor arrays of some sort, perhaps it is experimental kit.

[dennis]

They look like flat panels, they wouldn't fit flat panels as it makes a directional reflector. I guess they are there to hide something and they aren't there when they are actually out for real.

[newshound]

Nice theory, I like that explanation!

[soup]

They are sensors for the 2043 active/passive search sonar system, part of its 2054 sonar suite

[Brian Gaff]

They are to power the microwave ovens for the intercontinental ballistic overcooked potatoes I'd imagine. Brian

[Graham.]

Vanguard makes me think of the caboose at the back of a steam train. Come to think of it, a nuclear sub is a steam engine.

[Halmyre]

The previous HMS Vanguard was nicknamed 'Guard's Van', as it was the last in its line.

[Vir Campestris]

Ever looked at a stealth fighter?

[dennis]

Yes, they were limited by the design process, ever look at a stealth bomber?

Much of the stealth fighter is stuff for absorbing radar rather than avoiding reflections. Its all rather pointless anyway as you can detect any plane passing through a radio network, a radio network like a mobile phone network included.

[charles]

It will be too late by then .......

[ARW]

I might have looked at a good one and not seen it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The point about hard angles is that in general they only bounce signals back if they are coming from a single direction

Stealth fighters don't normally 'absorb' radar. They just reflect it in unhelpful directions.

[Vir Campestris]

Yes. It wasn't that division of Rockwell I worked for, but I was still interested.

The faceted design reflects radar in odd directions. Why would flat plates on a sub reflect sonar straight back to the sender - except in one specific direction?

Andy

[dennis]

There are lots of boundary layers and thermal effects in the sea that change the direction sound travels. Add in the fact that they can use sonar buoys and stuff like that and you really don't want to have big reflecting surfaces. Remember that a flat surface will reflect stuff back when the source is at 90 degrees to the surface and the world is 3d. You can't assume the radar/sonar is always in front of you, you can't even assume the source and the receiver are in the same place. A sub using active sonar is a big target, a sub picking up echoes from sonar buoys is not a target at all. If I were in the business of sub hunting I would use active buoys to sweep and use a sonar receiver on the sub to put all the different return echoes together to find the target. Just like phased array radar could. Buoys are cheap and unmanned so the enemy would have to spend a lot of time killing them and that would make them more prone to detection.

[tony sayer]

How?...