Were there any concepts for the replacement of the Los Angeles-class attack submarine or other concepts for what became the Seawolf-class SSN-21?
SUBMITTED BY DEPT
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ABARIS NAVY
125 CATRON DR
RENO, NV 89512
CONTRACT NUMBER:
WILLIAM L MURPHY
TITLE:
ASSESSMENT OF FIBER REINFORCED PLASTICS FOR COMBATANT SUBMARINE
STRUCTURES
TOPIC# 50 OFFICE: NAVSEA
THE PRESSURE HULL OF A COMBATANT SUBMARINE WOULD BENEFIT FROM THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITES, AND THUS IS A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR THE
APPLICATION OF THESE MATERIALS. THE TWO CANDIDATE MATERIAL SYSTEMS
ARE THERMOSETS AND THERMOPLASTICS. THE PROJECT IS TO CONDUCT
PRELIMINARY DESIGN STUDIES OF THE PRIMARY HULL STRUCTURE, FRAMES,
JOINTS, PENETRATIONS, AND ATTACHMENTS USING GRAPHITE FIBERS AND
POLYETHERETHERKETON (PEEK) RESIN. DESIGNS WILL BE ANALYZED FOR
STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE. A SCALE CANDIDATE HULL SECTION WILL BE
SELECTED, A DETAIL DESIGN CONDUCTED, AND TEST HULL SCALE SECTIONS
WILL BE BUILT. A TEST PLAN WILL BE DEVELOPED, AND A TEST FIXTURE
BUILT AND INSTRUMENTED. TESTS WILL BE CONDUCTED AND RESULTS
DOCUMENTED. PLAN FOR THE WORK OF A DEMONSTRATION AND VALIDATION
PHASE LEADING TO A MILESTONE II AND FULL SCALE ENGINEERING
DEVELOPMENT IS OFFERED AS AN OPTIONAL TASK.
In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, a navy submarine is shown undergoing tests in the National Transonic Facility on Oct. 3, 1986. Because air works in the same way as a liquid, it can be used to simulate the effects of water on a submarine hull.
Rickover of course also gutted the CONFORM program that produced a design that would have offered far greater performance at lower cost compared to the LA. As built the LA was inferior to the Sturgeon class that preceded it in almost all respects except for speed.TomS said:Centurion was of course after Seawolf.
Before Seawolf, there were several other proposed successors to the LA class.
First was the F/A (variously Fast Attack, Fleet Attack, and "Fat Albert). This was a small sub, roughly 5000 tons with a low length to beam ratio and performance more like a Sturgeon. This was a Zumwalt program intended to lower unit cost. Rickover savaged it and it never got far.
Rickover's preferred alternative was the Advanced High-Performance Nuclear Attack Submarine (AHPNAS), which was a giant, roughly twice the size of an LA, with a bank of vertical cruise missile launch tubes amidships, like an SSBN.