Re: Wet Navy in the future was Re: Questions regarding NAC ground units, was SG IF morale

Roger Burton West wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 08:28:14AM -0800, John Atkinson wrote:
> >As a side note, what's the difference between a
> >starship and a submarine?  Both have to be
> >water/vacuum proof--what's to stop a streamlined ship
> >from splashing into an ocean and hiding on the bottom
> >of the sea for a while, then flying out to launch
> >hit-and-run strikes on the enemy?
> 
> The spaceship needs to resist up to one atmosphere of negative
pressure
> (1 atm inside, vacuum outside), and should rarely if ever encounter
> positive pressure. A submarine doesn't need to resist negative
pressure,
> but does need to resist 40+ atmospheres of positive pressure (450m is
> the official maximum depth for the Los Angeles class, which is over 44
> atmospheres above surface pressure). While a streamlined ship may well
> be capable of shallow-water lurking, I suspect that the internal
bracing
> is entirely different. (There'll be more overlap than I've mentioned
> here, since one of the effects of a nearby warhead explosion is
> overpressure, but the basic design goals are distinct.)
> 
> Roger

The Traveller universe routinely has system defense boats deploy in 
underwater locations for covert operations.  If the operational
requirements are defined to operate in both vacuum and a given 
external pressure, they can clearly both be met.  You don't 
have to design a SDB for 5,000 ft of underwater/liquid operation.  
Just deep enough to disguise the visual, infrared, and other sensors.

Jon