[107649] in Cypherpunks
CDR: Re: [Fwd: C-Subs, a very scary thought] (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Wed Jan 20 08:49:27 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 07:10:54 -0600 (CST)
Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
----- Forwarded message from Tim May -----
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 00:33:06 -0800
From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: CDR: Re: [Fwd: C-Subs, a very scary thought]
At 5:26 PM -0800 1/19/99, Steve Schear wrote:
>>> ***********************************
>>>
>>> Russian submarine designers are building military submarines out of
>>> concrete. They say the new designs will save money and solve several
>>> problems with conventional steel-hulled subs.
>
>Concrete hulls are a well established technology. Their first mass use was
>during WWII in Liberty ships.
Incidentally, most such ships are filled with rebar and chicken wire, so I
wouldn't give a steel penny for the supposed invisibility of such ships.
Not that steel vs. concrete has anything to do with showing up on sonar:
>>> Concrete would not show up on sonar displays (it looks just like sand
>>>or rocks), so the passing ships would not see the sub lurking below.
A new set of laws of physics?
----- End of forwarded message from Tim May -----
Of course the density difference is critical to the sonar detection problem.
Having the rebar and such in there will cause a higher return amplitude than
simply concrete alone.
As to a new set of laws, of course not. But since concrete is basicaly sand
and gypsum with a handful of other materials it makes sense that they will
be harder to pull out of the grass since their basic constituents, and by
extension their sonar reflective properties, will be similar.
It's the same old physics: density, reflection, refraction, diffraction.
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