New Chilokver wrote:Could you explain what you mean by a baseline for passive rangefinding please? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that concept.
As Crookfur explained, when two spaced receivers receive the same sensor return, it is possible to triangulate the position of the emitter if you can determine the direction the signal came from using basic trigonometry. The distance between these two sensors (or multiple sensors) is called the baseline, and generally longer baselines are preferred over shorter baselines because they create a greater angular separation between the two receivers.
As a single large sensor, the bow array has basically no baseline because it is a single unit. The multi-part flank arrays mounted along the flanks of USN boats or in a single long sensor along the side of British boats creates a longer baseline because it can be spaced out along the submarine's length. The towed array can have an even longer baseline especially if used in conjunction with the flank arrays.
The Manticoran Empire wrote:What are the pros and cons of nuclear powered cruisers and destroyers?
The primary advantages are high speed endurance and plenty of power available for use for power hungry things like a big radar.
The obvious disadvantage is the high upfront costs and high ongoing manpower costs. It's not just a matter of finding manpower either because you need trained manpower capable of operating a nuclear reactor. This wasn't as big of a disadvantage when most conventionally powered ships still used oil-fired boilers and steam turbines, but modern gas turbines and diesels require very little maintenance and very small crews to maintain. Nuclear reactors generally require at least ten men per shift per reactor to monitor, ideally more (under USN preferences). So that's like 40-50 people plus command overhead per reactor. Virginia had two reactors, so that's almost a full fifth of the crew just for the reactors, nevermind the engineers who maintain the other systems. A gas turbine system needs like ten guys total for all of the turbines because they don't need continuous monitoring, just a couple of dudes to inspect the turbines every now and again.
Other disadvantages include worse power response and acceleration than gas turbine or diesel ships which makes for a less agile ship overall and a more complicated disposal process.
Also, would it be feasible to power amphibious warfare ships (LSD, LPD, LHD, LHA) with nuclear reactors and what costs and benefits could be seen?
Not really. Amphibious ships don't really need high-endurance sprint capability, nor are they operating giant radars. They shouldn't be showing up until the seas are already cleared. The USN doesn't even see fit to give them 30+ knot speed with regular gas turbines, which it still gives to non-nuclear destroyers and cruisers.
Post War America wrote:I'm sure someone can deliver a more comprehensive answer to the question but I'm gonna attempt a crack at it too. The big benefit of nuclear powered vessels is the theoretically unlimited range, which enables much greater power projection capability, especially if one is on the shared NS earth which is bloody enormous. While you would obviously need to resupply the vessel with food, spare parts and other essentials over the course of a long duration mission, but you don't also need to worry about carting over fuel if the ships are nuclear powered. There is a reason why the USN's carrier and submarine fleets rely on nuclear powered vessels after all.
Unlimited range isn't all that unlimited. It doesn't even really need to be that unlimited given that the US has bases and a network of allies across the globe.
The biggest benefit for surface ships is significantly improved sprint endurance. Which allows a fleet to rapidly converge on a trouble spot without depleting its entire fuel supply along the way.
The biggest advantage for submarines is obviously that it allows for much longer periods of submersion and for much greater available power to the boat. The latter is not an issue for surface ships because they can use gas turbines or diesels to produce huge amounts of power, but this requires oxygen for combustion so submarines must rely on batteries, onboard oxygen reserves (the basic principle of AIP), or nuclear power.
