The diesel subs have an advantage when they are cruising on their batteries, one thats is counter-balanced by the noise of their diesels when they are recharging the same batteries. Due to the capacity of their batteries, the diesel subs have to creep up on their targets. If the can get into position in front of the carriers, then they can creep, maintaining steerage way and let the carrier come to them. Faster speeds, eats rapidly into battery endurance.
As for the nukes, their reactors are, for the most part, rely on pressurized water for cooling. The noise of these pumps are the most noticable part of their signature.
Towards the latter days of the Cold War, subs started covering their propellers with shrouds (to reduce the prop noise) or even replacing the props with pump jets in an effort to reduce their signature even more.
The diesel-eletric subs have more than proved their worth, in certain situations they have a superior advantage to a nuke. On the other hand, sooner or later, they have to approach the surface and recharge their batteries, and they are quite vulnerable during those times
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
|