HMS Trafalgar photo..interesting details..

[davietait]

On another shipping site I use i've come across the following photo of HMS Trafalgar taken this week by the looks of it.
shipsnostalgia thread

Whats interesting is what looks like a new type ( to me anyway ) of non-acoustic detector on the sail and the 5 "tubes" on the starboard flank for what I can only guess are decoy launchers.

Thoughts anyone ??

Davie

[JWLaRue]

Very nice photo!

If those are

Very nice photo!

If those are decoy launchers, isn't the orientation......odd?

-Jeff

[davietait]

Not really if they're designed

Not really if they're designed to fire vertically towards aft then thats the shape i'd expect to see. The problem is that i've not seen these on any of the photo's of the S or T class boats i've seen so far. So either they've been carefull in the past and remembered to keep the caps shut or this is a new modification that they're trialing. Makes me think hard about what i'll have to do to detail the Astute i'm going to build next year once i've got the plans drawn up.

Davie

[JWLaRue]

Davie,

I enlarged the photo and

Davie,

I enlarged the photo and can now see that they are oriented towrds the upper rear. When I looked at it before, they looked like they were pointed down and to the bow.

-many thanks,

Jeff

[pdoman]

The silver tubes/conmes look like

The silver tubes/conmes look like those seen on Russian subs in recent years. Wake detectors?

[davietait]

I've had it confirmed on

I've had it confirmed on another site that the stainless steel tubes on the sail are a new RN non-acoustic wake detector system. The tubes are indeed decoy launchers and have been fitted to the S and T class during refit's during the late 1990's onwards. Just that i've not seen then in any photo's up till now so looks like they just forgot to close the decoy caps.

Still looks like she could do with a good coat of hammerite black ( uk paint thats got a rust inhibitor in it lol ) and some superglue to stick the annecoic tiles back on lol.

This is her just back from training op's with the USN stateside , been there for about 5 months from reports.

Davie



Edited By DavieTait on 1156255763

[wlambing]

Gents,
I think the Countermeasure

Gents,
I think the Countermeasure launch tubes ARE pointed forward. If memory serves, the Ohio class launchers (Buick Roadmaster fender holes!) do the same. In the photo, the leading edge of the sail (fin) is to the right. Then again, our friends across the pond DO drive on the wrong side of the road!! ;^) There are not normally "caps" installed, but you would see the ends of the C/m's themselves,, just inside each hole. The C/m end would look like a sealed metallic mailing tube tucked inside the opening.

Cheerio!

Bill

[Guest]

No, we drive on the

No, we drive on the correct side of the road. It's the others that have it all wrong.

Andy