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Afterskies — Halcyon-class Block III SSN

Published: 2010-07-31 15:49:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 44689; Favourites: 334; Downloads: 869
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Description Halcyon-class SSN (Fast Attack Boat)
Length: 415ft
Width: 45ft
Speed: 40 knots (surfaced)(45 on LIHBS), 43knots (submerged)(48 on LIHBS)
Depth: 2,250 feet
Propulsion: (2) S10W Liquid Metal Cooled Thermal-Fission Reactor
Armament:
8 VLS Pods (4 ESSMs/3 Tomahawk missiles/3 Harpoon missiles, 12 Stinger missiles/ 1 UCAV)
8 Torpedo Tubes (Bow)
4 Torpedo Tubes (Aft)
84 Anti-Torpedo active countermeasures/explosives (42 PORT/STBD)
16 (8 PORT/STBD) Passive Countermeasures
Complement:
118 Enlisted
14 Officers
Deployment:
2 ASDS (Internal Bay)
1 ASDS (External Mount)

The S10W LCTR Reactor Plant is vastly upgraded from the S9W LCTR on the Halcyon-class Block II submarine. Virtually no support systems are used, and the reactor is cooled by conduction/convection heat transfer of seawater to the outside of the reactor vessel for emergency situations, but primarily by a vast number of high-efficiency thermocouples, rendering the entire steam-production aspect of all other reactor plants obsolete. Once heated to operating temperature, thermal driving head is maintained in order to keep the reactor plant itself entirely quiet; absolutely no sound is produced.
With the elimination of the Machinery Room and Engine Room of other submarines, a second S10W reactor plant was able to be installed, as well as expanded berthing compartments, supply, and the ability to house more special forces units, including an additional ASDS.
Personnel numbers would have been lowered from the Block II class due to the enhanced technology, save for the added reactor plant needing additional nukes to operate it.

The propulsor set is made up of a series of internalized step-DC-powered pumps, both positive displacement and centrifugal, eliminating noise produced by traditional props, as well as allowing the submarine to go faster without cavitating.

The Block III is kept quiet by a battery of acoustic dampeners, absorbing noise to prevent it bouncing off of the hull, and augmented by yet another series of ambient-noise generators, which analyze the surrounding ambient noise and generator their own similar noises well enough to fool even computer sonar-listeners - thus ridding the worry of sub commanders about becoming "a hole of silence in the ocean."

Despite being able to have a SONAR view behind itself, as the lack of propeller and engine room now allow for such, it still maintains a pair of towed-sonar array/decoys for redundancy.

From the back half of the conning tower down to the bottom of the hull is a very large escape pod, which is able to be sealed and ejected from the rest of the hull to allow for a last-ditch escape should the submarine be compromised. It houses much of the berthing and food-storage spaces.

By far the craziest addition to the submarine is the Liquid Hydrogen Booster System (LIHBS), which takes water from the two reactor's shield tank that has radiolidically decomposed and separates it out via centrifuge, sending oxygen into the machinery and conn spaces, and trapping hydrogen with a cooling tank, where it is cooled until a liquid, and further subcooled. During tactical situations, this liquid hydrogen is run through channels in and around the reactor, acting as a high-efficiency moderator, vastly increasing it's capable output power, allowing for an "overdrive."
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Comments: 24

katung44 [2020-12-20 04:53:08 +0000 UTC]

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mattking16 [2015-02-09 05:14:12 +0000 UTC]

great drawing

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CylonRaider [2014-10-25 01:08:46 +0000 UTC]

nice Submarine! what tons does it weight? Interesting drawing.

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SIERRA-116 [2012-12-08 06:08:01 +0000 UTC]

Is this named after the Halcyon-Class Light Cruiser?

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Afterskies In reply to SIERRA-116 [2012-12-09 00:04:28 +0000 UTC]

Partly, yes.

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SIERRA-116 In reply to Afterskies [2012-12-14 10:47:56 +0000 UTC]

I thought so.

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Grand-Lobster-King In reply to SIERRA-116 [2014-02-01 02:39:14 +0000 UTC]

Hehehe

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Commander-Fillmore [2012-10-07 06:27:55 +0000 UTC]

Wow what a Sub

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Phoenix1701 [2012-06-02 23:27:05 +0000 UTC]

Is this supposed to be a U.S. sub?

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Afterskies In reply to Phoenix1701 [2012-06-28 05:39:30 +0000 UTC]

Yes and no. More or less just for the fun of it, but we're it to be of any irl nation, yes, the US.

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Phoenix1701 In reply to Phoenix1701 [2012-06-02 23:28:01 +0000 UTC]

Ignore last question.

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arenafighter [2012-04-29 05:50:19 +0000 UTC]

Super Cool! has a 'Hunt for Red October' meets 'Seaquest DSV' feel to it!

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Keyser94 [2012-03-06 17:03:17 +0000 UTC]

Well Rusian submarines are much better than the US ones.

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Afterskies In reply to Keyser94 [2012-03-06 20:35:05 +0000 UTC]

Actually, Russian subs have been rated to be comparable to only the 688i, where as Americans still field the Seawolf and Virginia class.

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Keyser94 In reply to Afterskies [2012-03-06 23:14:50 +0000 UTC]

I dont known... II have seen documentaries about US submarines and about Russian submarines, this is like compare the testimony of two murder suspects that are seeking to incriminate each other, you really dont known what of the two is telling the true.

So, I will go for the Russians, after the germany wall fall and most of their secrets come out is more easy trust in that and the lies and the secrets of US military.

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Afterskies In reply to Keyser94 [2012-03-07 12:54:01 +0000 UTC]

US Military secrets and lies are most often covering up their true capabilities. Being in the military, all I really hear is "Whoo, man, if I could tell you what X or Y can REALLY do..."
We undersell ourselves so very much. Seriously.

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Keyser94 In reply to Afterskies [2012-03-07 14:43:27 +0000 UTC]

Yeah I Known that, the issue that if you exagerate to much isnt not very credible, the military spend to much lying that that begin to believe their own lie, then when they go to wars they end it underestimating their enemies, so because of that they lose the last two wars.

And dont give me that crap of tactical withdrawal, a lost war is a lost war, no matter how you called it.

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Afterskies In reply to Keyser94 [2012-03-07 21:11:35 +0000 UTC]

Two? And we "lost" Vietnam politically, not militarily. We were bombing the hell out of Ho Chi Min city, the NVA's military pretty much consisted of nothing but their generals, and we'd effectively fought the war six times over and beaten them six times over with how many times Congress told us to stop for "peace talks" which they just used to regroup and resupply. The military was doing fine in every way, except in the public's eyes. Our kill-death ratios versus the Vietnamese were climbing to never before seen records in any previous war, and our pilots were getting better by the day. We had them outgunned, outmanned, outteched, we were killing them faster than they could kill us, taking strategic points like it was no bodies business, et cetera.
And then Congress happened.

We underestimated our enemies at first. Then we stopped and learned.

The military really doesn't lie as much as you'd think. Half truths, certainly. They'll beat the hell out of omitting information, but lying, not so much. This isn't Hollywood where the military is some giant faceless entity whose soldiers wear masks so you don't have to think of them as people, where conspiracies run rampant and soldiers don't give a crap about their countrymen.

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Emilion-3 [2012-02-21 21:05:38 +0000 UTC]

Mcnernian RN will consider this too

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onceelysian [2010-10-14 20:00:47 +0000 UTC]

This is somewhat to akin to the new sail they are looking at putting on the Block III Virginia's. Beam is a bit narrow to support 8 VLS AND 8 torpedo tubes. Seawolf just has the 8 tubes and she is a very tight 40ft.

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Afterskies In reply to onceelysian [2010-10-14 21:20:47 +0000 UTC]

Thanks, I'll mod that real quick to a nice 45 feet.

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onceelysian In reply to Afterskies [2010-10-14 23:27:24 +0000 UTC]

Perfect, mean lookin boat otherwise

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Messenger-Of-Chaos [2010-07-31 17:13:12 +0000 UTC]

Seawolf meets Akula.

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Afterskies In reply to Messenger-Of-Chaos [2010-08-01 00:46:46 +0000 UTC]

That was more or less the Block II; the Block III is more or less my expansion upon it, with additional crazy ideas thrown in. Will be updated later...

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