American sub and Plane from "Red Storm Rising"

I am continuing my series on the equipment used in Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising.  I am focusing on the Submarine that featured prominently in the book from the initial mission to the Berent sea where the Soviet Navy to the attack on the Soviet fleet as they were sortied to Norway and finally firing the tomahawks that decimated the Soviet Frontal aviation Backfires that were putting a hurt on the convoys and the escort ships.


Fast Attack Sub(688) Los Angeles Class   U.S.S Chicago

The Los Angeles class (also known as the 688 class) is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines (SSN) in service with the United States Navy. They represent two generations and close to half a century of the U.S. Navy's attack submarine fleet. As of 2016, 36 of the class are still in commission and 26 retired from service. Of the 26 retired boats, 14 of them were laid up half way (approximately 17–18 years) through their projected lifespans due to their midlife reactor refuelings being cancelled. A further four boats were proposed by the Navy, but later cancelled. The class has more operating nuclear submarines than any other in the world. All submarines of this class are named after American towns and cities (e.g., Key West, Florida, and Greeneville, Tennessee), the exception being USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-709). This system of naming broke a long-standing tradition in the U.S. Navy of naming attack submarines for creatures of the ocean (e.g., USS Nautilus (SSN-571)).
In 1982 after building 31 boats, the class underwent a minor redesign, the following 8 that made up the second "flight" of subs had 12 new vertical launch tubes that could fire Tomahawk missiles. The last 23 saw a significant upgrade with the 688i improvement program. These boats are quieter, with more advanced electronics, sensors, and noise reduction technology. Externally they can be recognized quickly as the retractable diving planes are placed at the bow rather than on the sail.

USS Chicago (SSN-721) is a Los Angeles-class submarine, the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Chicago, Illinois. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 13 August 1981 and her keel was laid down on 5 January 1983. She was launched on 13 October 1984 sponsored by Mrs. Vicki Ann Paisley, wife of Melvyn R. Paisley assistant Secretary of the Navy, and commissioned on 27 September 1986, with Commander Robert Avery in command.

Class and type:	Los Angeles-class submarine
Displacement:	5759 tons light, 6162 tons full, 403 tons dead
Length:	362 ft (110 m)
Beam:	33 ft (10 m)
Draft:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:	one S6G reactor
Speed:	Surfaced:20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h) Submerged: +20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h) (official)
Complement:	12 officers, 98 men
Sensors and processing systems:	BQQ-5 passive sonar, BQS-15 detecting and ranging sonar, WLR-8 fire control radar receiver, WLR-9 acoustic receiver for detection of active search sonar and acoustic homing torpedoes, BRD-7 radio direction finder
Armament:	4 × 21 in (533 mm) bow tubes, 12x Vertical Launching System tubes, 27 Mk48 ADCAP torpedo reloads, Tomahawk land attack missile block 3 SLCM range 1,700 nautical miles (3,100 km), Harpoon anti–surface ship missile range 70 nautical miles (130 km), mine laying Mk67 mobile Mk60 captor mines

P3 Orion,

    This plane also figured prominently in the hunt for the REDFLEET SSN that were trying to close the Atlantic against the convoys that were pushing their way through murderous losses from Backfire and Soviet Submarines.  From firing the harpoon against the Soviet ship landing troops on Iceland to trying to close the subsequent GIUK Gap after Iceland was captured by the Soviets early in the war that was a brilliant masterstroke that threw out 40 years of doctrine off the bat and the Allies having to scramble to rebuild the line to keep the Soviet subs out of the Atlantic.  My Blog buddy "Old NFO" knows more about these airplanes than the builders.

In August 1957, the U.S. Navy called for replacement proposals for the piston engined Lockheed P2V Neptune (later redesignated P-2) and Martin P5M Marlin (later redesignated P-5) with a more advanced aircraft to conduct maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare. Modifying an existing aircraft was expected to save on cost and allow rapid introduction into the fleet. Lockheed suggested a military version of their L-188 Electra, which was still in development and had yet to fly. In April 1958, Lockheed won the competition and was awarded an initial research and development contract in May.

The prototype YP3V-1/YP-3A, Bureau Number (BuNo) 148276 was modified from the third Electra airframe c/n 1003. The first flight of the aircraft's aerodynamic prototype, originally designated YP3V-1, was on 19 August 1958. While based on the same design philosophy as the Lockheed L-188 Electra, the aircraft was structurally different. The aircraft had 7 feet (2.1 m) less fuselage forward of the wings with an opening bomb bay, and a more pointed nose radome, distinctive tail "stinger" for detection of submarines by magnetic anomaly detector, wing hardpoints, and other internal, external, and airframe production technique enhancements. The Orion has four Allison T56 turboprops which give it a top speed of 411 knots (761 km/h; 473 mph) comparable to the fastest propeller fighters, or even slow high-bypass turbofan jets such as the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II or the Lockheed S-3 Viking. Similar patrol aircraft include the Soviet Ilyushin Il-38, the French Breguet Atlantique and the British jet-powered Hawker Siddeley Nimrod based on the de Havilland Comet.
The first production version, designated P3V-1, was launched on 15 April 1961. Initial squadron deliveries to Patrol Squadron Eight (VP-8) and Patrol Squadron Forty Four (VP-44) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland began in August 1962. On 18 September 1962, the U.S. military transitioned to a unified designation system for all services, with the aircraft being renamed the P-3 Orion. Paint schemes have changed from early 1960s gloss blue and white, to mid-1960s gloss white and gray, to mid-1990s flat finish low visibility gray with fewer and smaller markings. In the early 2000s, the scheme changed to a gloss gray finish with the original full-size color markings. Large size Bureau Numbers on the vertical stabilizer and squadron designations on the fuselage remained omitted

The P-3 has an internal bomb bay under the front fuselage which can house conventional Mark 50 torpedoes or Mark 46 torpedoes and/or special (nuclear) weapons. Additional underwing stations, or pylons, can carry other armament configurations including the AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-84E SLAM, AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER, the AGM-65 Maverick, 127 millimetres (5.0 in) Zuni rockets, and various other sea mines, missiles, and gravity bombs. The aircraft also had the capability to carry the AGM-12 Bullpup guided missile until that weapon was withdrawn from U.S./NATO/Allied service.
The P-3 is equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) in the extended tail. This instrument is able to detect the magnetic anomaly of a submarine in the Earth's magnetic field. The limited range of this instrument requires the aircraft to be near the submarine at low altitude. Because of this, it is primarily used for pinpointing the location of a submarine immediately prior to a torpedo or depth bomb attack. Due to the sensitivity of the detector, electromagnetic noise can interfere with it, so the detector is placed in P-3's fiberglass tail stinger (MAD boom), far from other electronics and ferrous metals on the aircraft.

Developed during the Cold War, the P-3's primary mission was to track Soviet Navy ballistic missile and fast attack submarines and to eliminate them in the event of full-scale war. At its height, the U.S. Navy's P-3 community consisted of twenty-four active duty "Fleet" patrol squadrons home based at air stations in the states of Florida and Hawaii as well as bases which formerly had P-3 operations in Maryland, Maine, and California. There were also thirteen Naval Reserve patrol squadrons identical to their active duty "Fleet" counterparts, said Reserve "Fleet" squadrons being based in Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan, Massachusetts (later relocated to Maine), Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, California and Washington. Two Fleet Replacement Squadrons (FRS), also called "RAG" squadrons (from the historic "Replacement Air Group" nomenclature) were located in California and Florida. The since-deactivated VP-31 in California provided P-3 training for the Pacific Fleet, while VP-30 in Florida performed the task for the Atlantic Fleet. These squadrons were also augmented by a test and evaluation squadron in Maryland, two additional test and evaluation units that were part of an air development center in Pennsylvania and a test center in California, an oceanographic development squadron in Maryland, and two active duty "special projects" units in Texas and Hawaii, the latter being slightly smaller than a typical squadron.

Reconnaissance missions in international waters led to occasions where Soviet fighters would "bump" a P-3, either operated by the U.S. Navy or other operators such as the Royal Norwegian Air Force. On 1 April 2001, a midair collision between a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals surveillance aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy J-8II jet fighter-interceptor resulted in an international dispute between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China (PRC).^[15]
More than 40 combatant and noncombatant P-3 variants have demonstrated the rugged reliability displayed by the platform flying 12-hour plus missions 200 ft (61 m) over salt water while maintaining an excellent safety record. Versions have been developed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for research and hurricane hunting/hurricane wall busting, for the U.S. Customs Service (now U.S. Customs and Border Protection) for drug interdiction and aerial surveillance mission with a rotodome adapted from the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye or an AN/APG-66 radar adapted from the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, and for NASA for research and development.

The U.S. Navy remains the largest P-3 operator, currently distributed between a single fleet replacement (i.e., "training") patrol squadron in Florida (VP-30), 12 active duty patrol squadrons distributed between bases in Florida, Washington and Hawaii, two Navy Reserve patrol squadrons in Florida and Washington, one active duty special projects patrol squadron (VPU-2) in Hawaii, and two active duty test and evaluation squadrons. One additional active duty fleet reconnaissance squadron (VQ-1) operates the EP-3 Aries signals intelligence (SIGINT) variant at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington.

In January 2011, the U.S. Navy revealed that P-3s have been used to hunt down "third generation" narco subs.This is significant because as recently as July 2009, fully submersible submarines have been used in smuggling operations.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and was poised to strike Saudi Arabia. Within 48 hours of the initial invasion, U.S. Navy P-3C aircraft were among the first American forces to arrive in the area. One was a modified platform with a prototype system known as "Outlaw Hunter". Undergoing trials in the Pacific after being developed by the Navy’s Space & Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), "Outlaw Hunter" was testing a specialized over-the-horizon targeting (OTH-T) system package when it responded. Within hours of the start of the coalition air campaign, "Outlaw Hunter" detected a large number of Iraqi patrol boats and naval vessels attempting to move from Basra and Umm Qasr to Iranian waters. "Outlaw Hunter" vectored in strike elements which attacked the flotilla near Bubiyan Island destroying 11 vessels and damaging scores more. During Desert Shield, a P-3 using infrared imaging detected a ship with Iraqi markings beneath freshly-painted bogus Egyptian markings trying to avoid detection. Several days before the 7 January 1991 commencement of Operation Desert Storm, a P-3C equipped with an APS-137 Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) conducted coastal surveillance along Iraq and Kuwait to provide pre-strike reconnaissance on enemy military installations. A total of 55 of the 108 Iraqi vessels destroyed during the conflict were targeted by P-3C aircraft.
The P-3 Orion's mission expanded in the late 1990s and early 2000s to include battlespace surveillance both at sea and over land. The long range and long loiter time of the P-3 Orion have proved to be an invaluable asset during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. It can instantaneously provide information about the battlespace it can see to ground troops, particularly the U.S. Marines.

General characteristics

• Crew: 11
• Length: 116 ft 10 in (35.6 m)
• Wingspan: 99 ft 8 in (30.4 m)
• Height: 38 ft 8 in (11.8 m)
• Wing area: 1300 ft² (120.8 m²)
• Airfoil: NACA 0014-1.10 (Root) – NACA 0012-1.10 (Tip)
• Empty weight: 77,200 lb (35,000 kg)
• Useful load: 57,800 lb (26,400 kg)
• Loaded weight: 135,000 lb (61,400 kg)
• Max. takeoff weight: 142,000 lb (64,400 kg)
• Powerplant: 4 × Allison T56-A-14 turboprop, 4,600 shp (3,430 kW) each
• Propellers: Four-bladed Hamilton Standard propeller, 1 per engine
  • Propeller diameter: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 411 kn (750 km/h)
• Cruise speed: 328 kn (610 km/h)
• Range: 2,380 nmi radius (4,400 km)
• Combat radius: 1,346 nmi (2,490 km) three hours on-station at 1,500 feet
• Ferry range: 4,830 nmi (8,944 km)
• Endurance: 16 hours
• Service ceiling: 28,300 ft(8,625 m)
• Rate of climb: 3,140 ft/min (16 m/s)
• Wing loading: 107 lb/ft² (530 kg/m²)
• Power/mass: 0.136 hp/lb at max gross (0.23 kW/kg)

Armament

• Guns: None
• Hardpoints: 10 wing stations in total (3x on each wing and 2x on each wing root) and eight internal bomb bay stations with a capacity of 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) and provisions to carry combinations of:
  • Rockets: None
  • Missiles:
    
    • Air-to-surface missile: AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-84 Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM-ER)
  • Bombs:
    
    • Depth charges, Mk 101 Lulu nuclear depth bomb, MK20 Rockeye, MK80 Series (MK82, MK83, MK84) general purpose bombs, B57 nuclear bomb (US service only, retired 1993)
  • Other:
    
    • Mk 44 (mostly retired from service), Mk 46,^[1] Mk 50, Mk 54 or MU90 Impact torpedoes
    • Mk 25, Mk 39, Mk 55, Mk 56, Mk 60 CAPTOR or Mk 65 Quickstrike naval mines^[84]
    • Stonefish naval mine (in Australian service)
    • Active and passive Sonobuoys

Avionics

• RADAR: Raytheon AN/APS-115 Maritime Surveillance Radar, AN/APS-137D(V)5 Inverse Synthetic Aperture Search Radar
• IFF: APX-72, APX-76, APX-118/123 Interrogation Friend or Foe (IFF)
• EO/IR: ASX-4 Advanced Imaging Multispectral Sensor (AIMS), ASX-6 Multi-Mode Imaging System (MMIS)
• ESM: ALR-66 Radar Warning Receiver, ALR-95(V)2 Specific Emitter Identification/Threat Warning
• Hazeltine Corporation AN/ARR-78(V) sonobuoy receiving system
• Fighting Electronics Inc AN/ARR-72 sonobuoy receiver
• IBM Proteus UYS-1 acoustic processor
• AQA-7 directional acoustic frequency analysis and recording sonobuoy indicators
• AQH-4 (V) sonar tape recorder
• ASQ-81 magnetic anomaly detector (MAD)
• ASA-65 magnetic compensator
• Lockheed Martin AN/ALQ-78(V) electronic surveillance receiver

More ships from Red Storm Rising

The Victor class is the type of submarine that was comparable to the fast attack boats that NATO used to go after the REDFLEET SSBN,  The Victor class submarines were considered to be their "varsity" and the behavior and tactics reflect this. According to the book, the American Mark 46 torpedo, the one used by the Submarines and P3 Orion, the warhead was small and the only way to "get a kill" on a submarine was to get a "propeller shot" bust the seals and flood the engine room.  The Soviet subs used a double hull design( like all subs) that made a hull shot iffy for a kill.  I don't know if it is true, I am going by what the book said.


The Victor class is the NATO reporting name for a type of nuclear-powered submarine that was originally put into service by the Soviet Union around 1967. In the USSR, they were produced as Project 671 (Russian: Проект 671). Victor-class subs featured a teardrop shape, which allowed them to travel at high speed. These vessels were primarily designed to protect Soviet surface fleets and to attack American ballistic missile submarines. Project 671 begun in 1959 and design task was assigned to SKB-143, one of the two predecessors (the other being OKB-16) of the famous Malachite Central Design Bureau, which would eventually become one of the three Soviet/Russian submarine design centers, along with Rubin Design Bureau and Lazurit Central Design Bureau

Victor III - Soviet design designation Project 671RTM Shchuka (Pike) - entered service in 1979; 25 were produced until 1991. Quieter than previous Soviet submarines, these ships had 4 tubes for launching SS-N-21 or SS-N-15 missiles and Type 53 torpedoes, plus another 2 tubes for launching SS-N-16 missiles and Type 65 torpedoes. 24 tube-launched weapons or 36 mines could be on board. The Victor-III caused a minor furore in NATO intelligence agencies at its introduction because of the distinctive pod on the vertical stern-plane. Speculation immediately mounted that the pod was the housing for some sort of exotic silent propulsion system, possibly a magnetohydrodynamic drive unit. Another theory proposed that it was some sort of weapon system. In the end, the Victor-III's pod was identified as a hydrodynamic housing for a reelable towed passive sonar array; the system was subsequently incorporated into the Sierra class and Akula-class submarine SSNs. The Victor III class was continuously improved during construction and late production models have a superior acoustic performance. They were 106m long. 21 exposed.

Displacement:	4,950 tons light surfaced; 6,990 tons normal surfaced/7,250 tons submerged
Length:	93–102 m (305 ft 1 in–334 ft 8 in)
Beam:	10 m (32 ft 10 in)
Draft:	7 m (23 ft 0 in)
Propulsion:	One VM-4P pressurized-water twin nuclear reactor (2x75 MW), 2 sets OK-300 steam turbines; 1 7-bladed or 2 4-bladed props; 31,000 shp (23,000 kW) at 290 shaft rpm—2 low-speed electric cruise motors; 2 small props on stern planes; 1,020 shp (760 kW) at 500 rpm Electric: 4,460 kw tot. (2 × 2,000-kw, 380-V, 50-Hz a.c. OK-2 turbogenerators, 1 × 460-kw diesel emergency set)
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Endurance:	80 days
Complement:	About 100 (27 officers, 34 warrant officers, 35 enlisted)
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar: 1 MRK-50 Albatros’-series (Snoop Tray-2) navigation/search Sonar: MGK-503 Skat-KS (Shark Gill) suite: LF active/passive; passive flank array; Barrakuda towed passive linear array (Victor III only); MT-70 active ice avoidance EW: MRP-10 Zaliv-P/Buleva (Brick Pulp) intercept; Park Lamp direction-finder
Armament:	Active vessels have 2 bow torpedo tubes, 650 mm (26 in) (8 weapons - Type 88R/SS-N-16 Stallion cruise missiles, Type 65-76 torpedoes) 4 bow torpedo tubes, 533 mm (21 in) (16 weapons - Type 83RN/Type 53-65K/USET-80 torpedoes, Type 84RN/SS-N-15 Starfish cruise missiles, VA-111 Shkval rocket torpedoes, MG-74 Korund and Siren decoys, or up to 36 naval mines)

The Foxtrot class was the NATO reporting name of a class of diesel-electric patrol submarines that were built in the Soviet Union. The Soviet designation of this class was Project 641.

The Foxtrot class was designed to replace the earlier Zulu class, which suffered from structural weaknesses and harmonic vibration problems that limited its operational depth and submerged speed. The first Foxtrot keel was laid down in 1957 and commissioned in 1958 and the last was completed in 1983. A total of 58 were built for the Soviet Navy at the Sudomekh division of the Admiralty Shipyard (now Admiralty Wharves), St. Petersburg. Additional hulls were built for other countries.
The Foxtrot class was comparable in performance and armament to most contemporary designs. However, its three screws made it noisier than most Western designs. Moreover, the Foxtrot class was one of the last designs introduced before the adoption of the teardrop hull, which offered much better underwater performance. Also, although the Foxtrot was larger than a Zulu Class Submarine, the Foxtrot Class had 2 of its 3 decks dedicated to batteries. This gave it an underwater endurance of 10 days, but the weight of the batteries made the Foxtrot's average speed a slow 2 knots at its maximum submerged time capability. Due to the batteries taking up 2 decks, onboard conditions were crowded with space being relatively small even when compared to older submarines such as the much older American Balao-class submarine. The Foxtrot class was completely obsolete by the time the last submarine was launched. The Russian Navy retired its last Foxtrots between 1995 and 2000, units were scrapped and disposed of for museum purposes. The last known operational unit, Zaporizhzhia, served in the Ukrainian Naval Forces until it was surrendered to / captured by Russia on March 22, 2014, as part of the Russian annexation of Crimea. Russia decided not to accept it due to its age and operational unsuitability. Its subsequent status was unknown.

Foxtrots played a central role in some of the most dramatic incidents of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Navy deployed four Foxtrot submarines to Cuba. US Navy destroyers dropped practice depth charges near Foxtrot subs near Cuba in efforts to force them to surface and be identified. Three of the four Foxtrot submarines were forced to surface, one eluded US forces.

Type:	Submarine
Displacement:	1,952 long tons (1,983 t) surfaced 2,475 long tons (2,515 t) submerged
Length:	89.9 m (294 ft 11 in)
Beam:	7.4 m (24 ft 3 in)
Draft:	5.9 m (19 ft 4 in)
Propulsion:	3 × Kolomna 2D42M 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) diesel engines 3 × Electric motors, two 1,350 hp (1,010 kW) and one 2,700 hp (2,000 kW) 1 × 180 hp (130 kW) auxiliary motor 3 shafts, each with 6-bladed propellers
Speed:	16 knots (30 km/h) surfaced 15 knots (28 km/h) submerged 9 knots (17 km/h) snorkeling
Range:	20,000 nmi (37,000 km) at 8 kn (15 km/h) surfaced 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) snorkeling 380 nmi (700 km) at 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged
Endurance:	3-5 days submerged
Test depth:	246–296 m (807–971 ft)
Complement:	12 officers, 10 warrants, 56 seamen
Armament:	10 × torpedo tubes (6 bow, 4 stern) 22 torpedoes Like I said, I am enjoying doing this, I will do an American sub tomorrow and the Orion.  Kinda keep the nautical theme rolling.

First Arrival..

While I was working, we had a plane show up.....

                                                                         Yep a B-17F

My employer celebrates Veterans Day, we have planes fly in and military equipment shows up.  A-10's F-16's P3 Orions, Hueys, C-47's V-22 Ospreys and many others.  This plane we painted earlier in the year and it was used in a movie that was based on this story.Damaged B-17 escorted Home by a German Fighter.  I had blogged about it a few years ago.  More planes are showing up, but the celebration is tomorrow and I will try to go to work and get some $$Overtime$$ and participate in the ceremony while I am there.  I do have my shadowbox there with my awards.  But I didn't bring my other stuff like I have in the past. 

My Shadowbox from events past.

My Helmet, my LBE, a Soviet, and an East German Flag.  My floppy hat, a East German hat and a Soviet Hat, my shadowbox and a beer stein that I "liberated" from the Octoberfest tent in Munich in 1986.

I will get more pics tomorrow and make a blog post out of them.