RE: [OT]Submarine Matters

>I had heard this story before but only heard that they took photographs
of
>the stern before sneaking out of the formation again.

There have been a number of shots taken of ships sterns. Most of them
while
the periscope was submerged - the interesting bits are the propellors.*
Most of the shots though were taken of vessels not of allied nations,
and in
difficult circumstances.
Unreliable rumour has it that Vladivostok harbour was one of the usual
settings,
but them that says don't know, and them that knows don't say.

> I've heard comment
>that the old Oberon class submarines are a lot sneakier than the class
which

>just replaced them.

See above re knowing/saying. But it has been publically acknowledged
that a)
there were severe flow noise problems at high speed at one time, b)
Several
buckets full of money were spent to resolve this (and MANY other)
problems c)
The American Combat System thay have is still not worth a damn and d) In
the
last FLEETEX off Hawaii, they "killed" a US SSN, one of the improved
LAs. Being
fair, the old Oberons used to do things like this too, but the US subs
are bound
to be a lot quieter than they were even a few years ago. And the Oberons
had
a combat system that worked properly.
So in my uninformed opinion, they're probably pretty good, maybe some of
the
best bluewater subs in the world, but aren't anywhere near their full
capability
yet. Had they been refitted with the German ISUS-90 sub combat system
(as the
RAN wanted before the US Govt put pressure on to cancel the deal) they
would
be rather better. I know because I had a hand in the design and
construction
of ISUS-90, and made sure there were bits in there specifically to deal
with
Australian conditions.

* The periscope photo that sticks in my mind is of a very slavic face
looking
down impassively from the cockpit of a HORMONE-A ASW Helo, when a NATO
sub went
to periscope depth at just the wrong time and place in the Baltic
sometime in
the early 80s. Oopsie. Every sub commander should have this photo on his
cabin
wall as a reminder.