Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Are those tandem-4s on that Victor III?

Raise your hand if you might have tracked either of these .....
The Transshelf semi-submersible open dock vessel has delivered two decommissioned Victor III class nuclear submarines from a Russian Pacific Fleet base in Kamchatka to the Zvezda shipyard in the town of Bolshoi Kamen in Russia’s Far East for scrapping.

26 comments:

ewok40k said...

sic transit gloria mundi - from over 300 subs alone, to maybe 2 dozen operational today

maogwai cat said...

Goin' the way of William R Ziegfried and the rest of us paper AW's.

MarkT said...

me, me, me! I tracked them - but not from the comfort of an AQA-7 console, no I did it man-style - http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/systems/an-sqr-18.htm

Jerry Hendrix said...

That would be me.

xformed said...

Got me time on F, T, EII, C....and almost a Y...

GunBoss said...

The ship is conducting a Western Atlantic training mission in international waters....

MR T's Haircut said...

Present and accounted for.. 

steeljawscribe said...

In the meantime...

India to get Russian Akula II Class SSN "The Akula-II class submarines are equipped with 28 nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a striking range of 3,000 km. The Indian version is reportedly expected to be armed with the 300-km Club nuclear-capable missiles."w/r, SJS

ewok40k said...

I guess this is their solution against PLAN CVBG...

Eagle1 said...

The whine of the limited slip differential was a sure giveaway.

:)

DeltaBravo said...

Yeah.  What he said!  ^

DeltaBravo said...

Sniffle.  Worthy opponents.  Predictable.  Not completely batshit crazy.  Even operated with a semblance of a code of honor.  Those were the good ol' days.  Who knew we might come to miss them.

Old Navy said...

Iceland.  P-3s, Late 80's.

Can anyone tell me if the Brass Nut is still there ?
(Brass Nut was a bar in the Deployed VP Squadron BOQ ...something tells me that some of the antics in the 'Nut would not be appreciated in today's kindler, gentler, Navy). 

MR T's Haircut said...

We pulled out of NAS Kef in 2000

Byron said...

Or USN...

ewok40k said...

if the trends will continue USN CVBG will be their least worry... but yes, such solutions tend to work the same against targets regardless of their flag (Courageous, Ark Royal, Taiho, Shinano Wasp...)

Acquisition Mark said...

From W. Craig Reed's Red November "Thanks to Toshiba and Kongsberg, Victor IIIs sported ultra-quiet tandem four-bladed propellers..."

Not many of us heard them unless you were lucky enough to have a Papa 3 drop a buoy on top and then share the decibels with ya (they didn't always share...)

victor said...

In surface fleet, subs track you. 

pk said...

back in the day there was a movement in the Navy machine tool world to NEVER EVER by toshiba machine tools again.

C

James said...

The  Indians for a LONG time wanted to be friends with the chinese but have lately realised thats not happening. To the Chinese there can only be one. Has always been that way....

Add in the PLAN building Naval Bases in PAK territory............yea.

Grandpa Bluewater said...

Some folks still won't buy Toshiba anything. Include me in.

That picture was a lot easier and cheaper than the first one taken of those props.

Sean said...

Toshiba bastards tried to kill me.

Count me amoung the group that will not buy Toshiba....and I have influenced decisions against Toshiba at a number of companies in my post-Navy career.

MR T's Haircut said...

I used to LOVE these cuts in FASO or / and ATT exams

Andy said...

Count me in on the "never Toshiba" group.  I've told the tell to many over the years and have made my (very) small dent in their profit margin.  Bastahds...

guest said...

Back in the day, we had a bumper sticker over the door to our (secure) CAD/CAM area thanking Toshiba for making Russian subs quieter. Still don't buy their products even though I am no longer in that biz.

Fondly remember the look on our FSOs face when we asked if we could attend a "propeller machining symposium" at a Black Sea resort, (all expenses paid IIRC) invitation we received in the mail.

leesea said...

BTW the heavy lift ship aka Flo/Flo ship Transhelf was built for MORFOLT by the Dutch company Wjismuller, now Dockwise.  It was largest when built and cost about $100 mil.  Compare that to the cost and complexity of the US Navy's MLP for about $400 mil with LESS deck area and flexibity.

MLP = corporate welfare IMHO