Scylla-class
Displacement: 84,000t submerged
Length: 350m
Beam: 26m
Draft: 16m
Reactor: 1x INNEC RA(PW)-14 supercritical pressurised water reactors (enough to produce 480MW power for max. speed + electrical power)
Turbines: 2x50 MW auxiliary diesels
Shafts: 1
Screws: 1 x 7-bladed large-area shrouded
Speed: 27 knots (50km/h) submerged
Endurance: Food supply (2yrs)
Test Depth: 400m
Complement: 185
Armament:
4 x 533mm (21in) torpedo tubes (normally for LY5755) (60 capacity)
40 x LY4046 ‘Dawnbringer’ SLBMS
6 x GWLS.35M4 dual length 8-cell VLS (cell dimensions: 0.7 × 0.7 × 9/18 m^3) (LY4031, LY589, or similar)
Electronics:
Lyran InfoWar Mk 387 bow-mounted sonar array
LY388 towed array sonar
LY389 passive intercept and ranging sonar
AN/ALQ-99 ‘Tiamat’ EW suite
LY7010 I-band navigation radar
LY7720 obstacle avoidance sonar
LY7781 environmental monitor
LY7094 oceanographic sonar
Type 2078 fire control bow element
LYMkIV(N) CBRN emergency overpressure system
Abstract
The Scylla-class is a Lyran-designed nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. It is the first class of submarines known to be designed to employ fractional orbital bombardment systems, in this instance using the LY4046 ‘Dawnbringer’ missile. It is optimised for extreme-range, extreme duration deterrence patrols, into the NS inter-regional deep ocean.
Background, conceptualisation and development
In early 2002, High Marshal Cassandra Atherton, the head of the Lyran Protectorate’s maritime forces, submitted a research paper to the rest of Executive Command. A number of its salient points were disturbing. First amongst them was the fact that the Protectorate’s fleet of ballistic missile submarines, fairly similar to those available to most states of the NS world, had submarine-launched ballistic missiles with ranges approximating 10,000km. This distance, however, is not even sufficient to hit every other state within Greater Dienstad, let alone in the wider world. Compounding the problem is the fact that in-service submarines throughout the world, including Lyras, while possessing the nuclear fuel to travel near-indefinitely, only possess sufficient stockpiles of food for the crew to last, at most, six months. Given the requirement to maintain a modicum of concealment, moving at full speed is thus entirely unfeasible. As a consequence, High Marshal Atherton had determined, there were large areas of the world’s surface that were beyond the effective range of Lyran submarine-launched missiles... a notable hole in strategic policy.
Thus, at Warmarshal Krell’s express direction, the Protectorate Research and Development Commission was tasked to produce a vessel capable of year-long patrols, while also carrying munitions capable of effective use against any point on the planet, thus allowing for realistic and timely second-strike, regardless of the platform’s location.
The solution had two complementary avenues.
The first was the utilisation of fractional orbital bombardment system (FOBS) munitions. FOBS weapons, by virtue of their entering orbit prior to descent, have an unlimited range. They are, however, considerably larger and heavier for a given payload than more conventional weapons. To obtain the same warhead yield, a considerably larger weight and volume within the submarine is required. This applies substantial upwards pressure on the submarine’s dimensions.
Similarly, the two greatest restrictions to a nuclear submarine’s operational range are the food requirements and morale of its crew. A submarine can only carry so many consumables, and resupply at sea is problematic, especially if distance and the requirements of strategic concealment are factored into the equation. Thus, the second solution avenue was to provide more space in the submarine to carry consumable stores.
Addressing morale issues was the more difficult of the two. Year-long deployments, at the minimum, put considerable strain upon a crew’s mental state, already under stress from the simple fact of being aboard a submarine. As a consequence of this, the projected vessel was to employ considerably better crew amenities than were the norm for combat submarines around the world. This is recognised as only a partial solution, however, and Lyran vessels of this class are expected to include pastoral and psychological support personnel as part of their standard personnel manifests, and personnel deploying aboard vessels of this class were, it was decided very early, not to be on their first submarine deployments.
With all these factors together, there was a considerable rationale for dramatically increasing the size of the vessel, as it was generally conceived.
The design process was long, and punctuated by considerable pauses and tangential avenues of research, but the vessel, dubbed ‘Scylla’, was unveiled, to considerable fanfare, in April, 2011.
Primary Armament
On any ballistic missile submarine, the ballistic missiles carried by the platform are its reason to exist, and the Scylla is no exception. As part of the initial design concept, the requirement to reliably deliver strategic ordnance to anywhere on the planet required a weapon capable of tremendous range. Congruent with a similar requirement in Lyras’ ground-based nuclear arsenal, the Scylla was thus built around the provision for usage of the LY4046 ‘Dawnbringer’. Dawnbringer is an unlimited-range, multiple-RV, low CEP, nuclear-armed ballistic missile, based upon the R36orb.
Modifications to the launching mechanism, relative to silo-launched examples, include provision for a high-pressure compressed gas based system, rather than the piston-fired mechanism. Launch tubes are backfilled with water, to prevent appreciable shift in the submarine’s centre of gravity after launch, and to minimise effects on the vessel’s trim. Trim-tanks are utilised also to adjust for the differences in mass, and the vessel’s performance is unaffected.
‘Dawnbringer’ is unusually difficult to engage by anti-ballistic missile systems, for three primary reasons. The first is due to the fact that warheads may de-orbit anywhere along the orbital path, even successfully detecting them prior to re-entry does not provide accurate detail of intended strike location. The second is that the RVs, being themselves manoeuvrable, are unpredictable in their course, and far less constrained in their lines of approach to any given target. Thirdly, the inclusion of multiple penetration aids (such as flares, chaff, false-target balloons and lubricant) makes it considerably more likely that hard-kill ABM systems will be unsuccessful in interception attempts against LY4046 strike.
LY4046 realises genuinely global nuclear reach, and enables nuclear deterrence, regardless of the tyranny of distance.
Weight: 210,000kg
Multiple orbit throw-weight: 4,420kg (single warhead), 3,960kg (triple RV)
Penetration aids (by weight): 320kg
Length: 30m
Diameter: 3.4m
Warheads: 3 x 0.5MT, 1 x 3.8MT, 1 x 8MT (exo-atmospheric EMP)
Detonation: Airburst
Engine: Two-stage liquid propellant
Operational Range: Fractional Orbital Bombardment System.
Speed: 7.8- 8 km/s
Guidance system: Inertial, satellite, stellar
Accuracy: <80m CEP
Launch Platform: Silo or Submarine (40m deep)
Cost: NS$130m
Secondary Armament
While very much a lesser consideration on a ballistic missile submarine, the Scylla-class does employ considerable secondary armament, in the form of both vertical launch systems for non-strategic missiles, and also four 533mm torpedo tubes, capable of launching most standard tube-launched munitions, including UGM-109 and analogues, and a wide array of 533mm torpedoes.
As part of the Scylla-class design, however, the Protectorate Naval Research and Development Commission, situated in Port Tal, developed the ‘Charybdis’ heavy torpedo.
The Charybdis torpedo (formally LY5755) is a heavy torpedo, designed to acquire engage and sink high-speed, deep-diving, high agility and well protected targets, which has become standard aboard Lyran submarines, and is gaining increasing use in Lyran-aligned maritime forces.
Charybdis can be guided either by wire, or by the torpedo’s integral sonar suite, which features both active and passive sonar. Charybdis also includes a magnetic anomaly detector, which is utilised to sense a ship’s hull, by acquisition of its metallic mass.
The weapon’s powerful and robust Indium Gallium Arsenide microprocessor, coupled with an autonomous decision-making package derived from the world-benchmark suite of the LY589 Hellion, provides the ability to make remarkably complex tactical decisions during the attack, including, but not limited to, varying sprint and drift speeds, usage of the thermocline for evasion, off-vector attacks to camouflage the location of the platform, and integral counter-sonar acoustic attack.
Further to that, the torpedo has a duel-tandem warhead, featuring a gold-lined penetrator as a hull-breacher and initiator charge, followed up by a 300kg main charge. Initial investigations into the use of octanitrocubane (C8(NO2)8) failed due to experimental production methods failing to generate the expected amounts, and the conventional methods being woefully inadequate in their attempts to keep up with demand. Thus, an existing, although still rather unconventional, explosive was utilised, based on Lyran developmental experience of the LY1002 and derivatives.
The main charge is, on this vein, composed of a YJ-05 filler, which drives ethylene oxide, and energetic nanoparticularised-and-floridated aluminium, which is dispersed and rapidly ignites/combusts/detonates. The resultant sustained high pressure wave is particularly lethal against submarines, whose pierced hulls are then subjected to tremendous overpressure from a position interior to their pressure hulls, cracking open their outer hulls while simultaneously buckling interior bulkheads. Against surface ships, the YJ-05 explosive itself accounts for the damage, with nearly three times the peak pressure, and 50% greater pressure impulse than an equivalent weight of Composition B.
The weapon is triggered by either contact detonation (against a submarine hull) or an acoustic and/or magnetic proximity fuse (for under-keel detonation against ships).
Charybdis is propelled by a pump-jet, driven by a Port Tal LY870 gas turbine engine, running on Otto fuel II. Otto Fuel II consists of propellant propylene glycol dinitrate (PGDN), a nitrated ester explosive, to which a desensitizer (dibutyl sebacate) and a stabiliser (2-nitrodiphenylamine) have been added. PGDN is the major component, and accounts for approximately 75% of the mixture, while dibutyl sebacate and 2-nitrodiphenylamine account for approximately 23% and 2%, respectively. An oily, red-orange liquid, this fuel’s energy density is considerably greater than the capacity of an electric battery, a factor which maximises range.
Hydroxyl ammonium perchlorate is used as the oxidiser for the fuel mixture, though it is not strictly required for the weapon’s operation.
Production of the LY5755 is carried out at Port Tal, Osmouth and Port Finch, and the weapon is available for export. The total number produced has not been disclosed.
Weight: 1,900 kg
Length: 7.5 m
Diameter: 533 mm (21 in)
Maximum range: 55 km at low speed
24 km at high speed
Warheads:
Penetrator/initiator charge: 50kg gold-lined HE shaped-charge
Main charge: 300kg YJ-05, ethylene oxide, energetic nanoparticularised-and-floridated aluminium
Total warhead weight: 350 kg (770 lb)
Detonation mechanism: Proximity, contact or magnetic anomaly detonation
Engine: LY870 gas-turbine with pump-jet
Propellant: Otto fuel II with HAP oxidiser
Speed: 80 knots (150 km/h)
Guidance system: Wire-guided, integral active and passive sonar, magnetic anomaly detector
Construction: HY-100 steel
Unit Cost: NS$3m
Maximising the Scylla-class vessels’ multi-mission capability, six GWLS.35M4 dual length 8-cell VLS tubes are mounted forward of the sail, designed to carry UGM-109s, LY589 Hellions, or analogues. Of broadly the same type as featured in the main arsenals of the Longsword-class SDGNs, the GWLS.35M4 adds a tremendous flexibility, and a means of conventional stand-off surface strike, without compromising the vessel’s strategic nuclear strike primary role. Also available within the forward VLS are weapons such as the LY4031, which enable a Scylla at launch depth to engage detected hostile aircraft.
Sensory, Networking and Fire Control systems
As with any submarine, the primary sensor system of the Scylla-class is its sonar suite. Derived from a number of sources, with varying degrees of legality in the derivation, the Scylla is a remarkably well equipped vessel in terms of detection capabilities. Doctrinally, the intent is for a Scylla to drift slowly, loitering in the deepest and most remote parts of the globe, utilising its sophisticated detection systems to slip quietly away from any potential threats that might come within acquisition range. Dubbed ‘Black Shark’, the composite sensor suite is modular, multi-mode, multi-frequency and open in architecture, featuring a number of distinct subsystems, mounted on the bow, fins, flanks and in towed form. The total system has a computational power approximately equal to 90,000 personal home computers.
The first subsystem is, unsurprisingly, the primary forward sonar array. A tangential benefit to the class’ enormous size is the very large space made available for it, rendering it unusually powerful. At nearly five times the effective sonar dome area, relative to a Vanguard-class, the Scylla’s Lyran InfoWar Mk 387 bow array has 65,000 hydrophones, providing it with near-unprecedented acoustic detection sensitivity. As a dual-use active and passive system, the very high number of active-element hydrophones (the largest number of any known sonar system, anywhere in the world) provides a very potent scanning capacity whether radiating or running silent. Further, the very wide spacing between the extremities of the system allows for bearing change across different individual hydrophones, and thus allowing for a remarkably fast and precise direction and distance calculation, without the submarine being forced to run a baseline track to triangulate distance.
Also designed for the Scylla was the Lyran InfoWar Mk 388(LY388) towed array sonar. At 1000m long, and 45mm in diameter; the -388 provides for very high degrees of scanning efficiency. The -388 operates at an extremely low frequency, which is a factor pertinent to its passive search capacity.
The LYIW Mk 389 (LY389) lateral sonar array is similar, conceptually, to the ‘lateral line’ common to many fish, and utilises the same principles of detection. Where a more standard submarine may have three or four (generally) rectangular passive sonar panels secured to each flank of the vessel, a Scylla, again due to its great size, has eleven. This expanded sensory base enables the Scylla to better compare any given disturbance to the ambient surroundings, and also better triangulate suspected contacts. Since the Scylla’s commissioning, a number of marine biology research organisations have loaned the use of the ship’s sonar logs, a research avenue that has greatly expanded global scientific understanding of the migration and feeding patterns of many of the more obscure creatures that inhabit the world’s oceans.
Like the Collins-class, the Scylla features a powerful intercept array. Unlike the Collins, however, the Scylla mounts the receivers and transmitters on photonics mast at the rear of the sail, while the pod itself is contained within the vessel’s pressure hull. The array itself is the still-world-benchmark Lyro-Varessan AN/ALQ-281 'Tiamat' (Babylonian mythology – 'Dragon of Chaos') electronic warfare system.
Given the absolutely crucial nature of secrecy to the Scylla’s mission success, the niche in which active electronic warfare exists is, by definition, a small one, but as with many already extant platforms, the capability is there if required.
The system, when engaged, is capable of intercepting, automatically processing and jamming received radio frequency signals. The platform’s electronic attack capabilities involve using radiated EM energy to degrade, neutralise or destroy hostile force- or force-support elements. Of particular note is the potency this represents in the operation of forces in contested or hostile airspace. Whether a hostile radar is ground-based, aerial or a ship-based surface-search system, ‘Tiamat’ serves as a flexible and high-potency source of electronic countermeasures.
More than this, however, the system also makes acquisition of useful radar-based information of all forms, including range-finding, highly problematic at best. Acquiring a radar-based sight picture within a 'Tiamat' protected area can be challenging, although as an emitting system, the full capabilities should be used judiciously, lest the high-potency EM signature broadcast the unit's position un-necessarily, and compromise operational security.
'Tiamat' is one of the first EW platforms to use high-end solid-state emitters, coupled with dramatically elevated potential power throughput, and dynamic and pattern-probability frequency agile (PPFA) barrage and spot jamming to render all but the most potent radars ineffective. Further, if the seeking radar is calculated to be capable of burning through the jamming, the system uses precisely timed and Cromwell-backed broad-spectrum DRFM (Repeater) jamming, to further maximise detection degradation. Multiple platforms can be co-ordinated to provide simultaneous EW if the radar in question is potent.
The receivers can also be used to detect, identify and locate non-friendly signals, providing ELINT/SIGINT either automatically or manually. When emissions control (EMCON) is required, however, the 'Tiamat' transmitters can be turned off, which thus, as one would expect, cancels the EM broadcasting. Unlike the earlier AN/ALQ-99 series, the 'Tiamat' utilises power generated by the platform to function. Given the presence of a 480MW nuclear reactor as the power source, however, this is expected to be a very minor concern, to say the least.
When surfaced, or at periscope depth, the Scylla-class can use the LY7010 I-band surface search radar, which is also situated in a retractable mast on the rear of the sail, alongside the photonics mast.
A photonics mast is similar in concept to a traditional periscope, but is, in design, more akin to a digital camera mounted on a telescoping arm. Thus, a photonics mast replaces the traditional, mechanical, line-of-sight viewing equipment, and does not require a traditional ‘periscope well’, and imposes fewer penalties on stowage, and is not a hull weak-point in the same manner as more conventional devices.
Further, unlike legacy systems, a photonics mast need not be located directly above its user, and allows for command center layout that is not slaved to the periscope. As with the Virginia and Astute-class submarines, the command center has thus been moved down a deck, away from the curvature of the hull, optimising the use of space, and making for a more efficient working environment for the crew and captain.
The information is provided to the command center through a host of sensors, including, but not limited to, high definition low-light and thermographic cameras, laser range-finders, false-colour infra-red, and polarised Mk1 eyeball. Images and information from systems is sent to the relevant operators, direct to their display panels for analysis. The photonics mast, in its capacity as a telescoping rod, can also support the navigation, electronic warfare, and communications functions of a conventional optical periscope mast.
The Scylla featured internally dispersed multiple-redundant components, connected through the use of solid-core photonic-crystalline fiber-optic cabling. Fibers-optics are used instead of more traditional systems as signals travel along them with less loss and allowing for a higher-than-standard bandwidth, and they are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Photonic-crystalline fiber optics have in turn been selected due to the improved confinement (and thus loss reduction) of the light which forms the data carriage.
Highly magnified imagery of photonic-crystalline fiber optics. Image courtesy of the United States Naval Research Laboratory
While adding to the cost of the (already expensive) electronics, the presence of such a system allows for greater parallelity, system robustness and combat durability than an equivalent unitary system. Combat damage may slow the system, but is unlikely to completely destroy it, without having sunk the ship.
The Scylla-class have a P.A. system also present, although used sparingly, as any un-necessary noise is not a good thing, even if all but the absolutely loudest of noises would be absorbed by the interior cladding, let alone the anechoic-coated hull.
Continuing on a trend in Lyran hardware that was established quite some time ago, the platform’s electrics are composed of Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs), rather than silicon-based semiconductors, rendering the vehicle proof against electromagnetic interference or EMP-based attack, although the InGaAs is itself yet another highly expensive addition. Given the ever increasing utilisation of sophisticated electronic and sensory systems, shielding these systems is, now more than ever, deemed a centre of gravity for the platform's protective systems. It was quickly reasoned that when operating in an environment which may include anti-strategic platforms such as the LY4032 “Rampart”, the chances of the platform encountering high levels of electromagnetic interference goes up dramatically, and the dangers presented by these and similar munitions far outweighs the relatively modest (though expensive in absolute terms) cost of the implementation of InGaAs components.
Scylla-class vessels are also, as a matter of course, fitted with the LY8012 degaussing system, designed to reduce the submarine’s magnetic signature. A degaussing at a purpose-built facility, every five or six years, is still recommended.
Propulsion
The Scylla is a very large vessel, and the means of propelling it through the water as quietly, and as efficiently, as possible was a very important part of the vessel’s design process. The primary means of pushing the Scylla through the water is a single, large diameter, seven-bladed, single-shaft skewback pump jet propulsor. The skewback design is longer, along the thrust axis, and is considerably less likely to cavitate than conventional-planform screws. The exact dimensions are classified, and the propellers must be covered prior to their clearing the water’s surface.
The reactor, another crucial element in a propulsion system, is the INNEC RA(PW)-14, a 480MW supercritical pressurised water reactor, is the same reactor design as operates on the Longsword-class SDGN. While the Longswords mount eight, however, the Scylla needs only one of the reactors to fill its energy requirements.
Similar in design to the Rolls Royce PWR2, the RA(PW)-14 is designed to be able to operate for its entire service life without the need for expensive (and time- and personnel-intensive) refueling.
The design of the reactor includes the reactor vessel itself situated ventrally within the boat’s pressure hull, and the steam generators dorsally, a feature which greatly supports natural convection, allowing that natural convection to, in the majority of circumstances, serve as the reactor’s primary coolant mechanism. This greatly reduces the requirement to operate reactor pumps, which serve as a major source of noise for submarines underway, and eliminating a large majority of the coolant pumps and associated equipment not only tremendously lowers acoustic signature, but also serves as an obviation of maintenance intensity, with less moving parts to fail.
There are still coolant pumps available for use, but these are generally only employed as the Scylla pushes up towards its maximum rated speeds, and reactor output approaches its maximum. Coolant flow pathing is designed to be very smooth, so as to not interfere with the natural convection flows that serve as its primary means of motion. Given this, the pumps that are in place are both smaller and quieter than most of their analogues aboard other vessels, and the turbine generators attached to them are similarly quieter. While a large reactor, in volumetric terms, the intent to use such a design was factored into the Scylla’s original design conceptualisation.
The reactor drives a turbine quartet, linked to the pump-jet’s shaft. The Scylla, at full ahead, can make 27 knots (51km/h).
Construction, Armour and Protection
The Scylla hull is constructed from a high-tensile micro-alloy steel, developed by Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB, and improved by BHP of Australia, which was lighter and easier to weld than the HY-80 or HY-100 nickel-alloy steel that is featured in most submarine projects. This alloy is the same as is employed in the Collins-class, an alloy which has also, importantly, provided better results than the aforementioned alloys in explosion bulge testing, a statistic that directly effects the maximum depth to which a vessel can operate.
As is standard amongst many submarines throughout the world, the bridge fin is specially reinforced to facilitate the vessel’s surfacing through the polar ice caps.
Well aware of the fact that the Scylla is not an agile submarine, the vessel has been designed with considerable structural reinforcement, and is the first known submarine to feature a triple-hull design. While other vessels (most notably the Typhoon-class) make use of double-hulls, adding considerably to durability and strength of the vessel, the practice is generally expensive in dimensions, in agility and in financial terms. Given the already extant low levels of agility, however, and the very large size and displacement already a given for the vessel, this was not considered to be of particular negative concern.
The vessel is internally compartmentalised, and these internal compartments are linked by computer-controlled internal communications systems. These compartments are sealed when the vessel comes to general quarters, and many low-traffic areas are left sealed as a matter of course.
Signature Reduction
Due to the Scylla-class’ role, signature reduction was very much a paramount concern. In this regard, arguably more than any other, the vessel’s immense size was a disadvantage. It was, however, less of a significant problem than immediately apparent. Sonar being far and away the paramount concern for detection, methods to reduce radiated noise and acoustic signature were on the drawing board from the first moments that the class began to crystallize.
Two components of a vessel’s characteristics play the greatest role in a vessel’s acoustic footprint. The first is radiated noise… that being the amount of noise that the platform itself radiates. The second is water displacement, which is a product of the cross-section of the vessel, as it moves through the water.
Interestingly, as the water displaced is a product of surface area (a value based upon dimensions, squared), and a vessel’s displacement is a product of its total occupied volume (a value based upon dimensions, cubed), a vessel’s size grows faster than its sonar signature would suggest. Nevertheless, the Scylla’s frontal surface area is a little over twice that of a Typhoon-class, and nearly four times that of an Ohio or Vanguard, a fact which is reflected in the Scylla’s higher noise-output per given speed. As a further consequence of this, the Scylla-class tend to choose to run more cautiously, and deeper, as a matter of course.
Despite this, early test runs showed a higher-than-expected hydrodynamic noise signature. Flow analysis using both 3D computer design programs and coloured dye showed the source of the problem to be a change in the dimensions of the diving planes, which had focused the displaced water into four discrete, condensed streams, which then pushed this disturbed water up against the seven-bladed propeller at the stern. A redesign of the diving planes, and the addition of a pair of small near-dorsal fiberglass fairings, just rear of the bow sonar dome served to smooth out the water flow, and return the hydrodynamic signature to design specifications.
Another major factor in acoustic signature is the presence of machinery noise, transmitted through the hull. The Scylla circumvents this by, at the conceptualization, design, and construction phases, mounting this upon platforms isolated from the hull by a variety of coils, springs, rubber padding and foam matting.
Coolant pumps and machinery, intrinsic to a reactor, are a prime source of noise for most nuclear powered submarines. The Scylla’s reactor, however, is far, far quieter than the norm, and the reactor room, as with the rest of the submarine, features rubber floor matting, and internally sound-proofed lined walls.
As with many other classes of modern submarine, the Scylla makes extensive use of acoustic-dampening anechoic tiles in order to minimize detection by action sonar, and absorb radiated noise as well.
The tiles are, however, appreciably different from those applied to most in-service SSBNs, and bear more resemblance to those of the Royal Australian Navy’s Collins-class. Initially developed by Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation, this anechoic tiling is considerably different to that of the United States and United Kingdom, due to the US and UK’s refusal to share the classified information pertaining to the tiles’ construction.
These tiles, like the Australian ones, are moulded in the shape of the hull, and are secured by a high-strength commercial adhesive, normally used to affix cat’s eyes to road surfaces. Interestingly, although British and American submarines are often seen with missing tiles, to date not a single Australian (or Lyran) submarine has lost a tile at sea.
In total, more than 300,000 acoustic tiles mask the Scylla-class’ sonar signature.
Complement and Amenities
The very long deployments that the Scylla-class is designed to perform, and the very large amounts of internal space, make for a vessel intended to be as comfortable as humanly possible without compromise to mission-crucial systems.
The number of personnel aboard has been minimised at the design stage, by Executive Command insistence upon the highest possible degree of automation. Executive Command also insisted that personnel also have their own quarters and bed, and thus not only did away with the commonplace submariner practice of ‘hot bunking’, but also had a degree of personal space – a concept previously almost unheard of amongst navies in general, and even more of a pipedream amongst submariners.
Personal flat-screen televisions, personal microwave ovens, computer access, comfortable furniture, a gym that consists of more than a treadmill, a workable galley and small hydroponics garden further provide crew with means of combating the onset of insanity at the long deployments to which they are expected to be subject to.
Crew complement and regulations, as standard, include pastoral support provisions (in the form of Chaplains, or similar), psychological support, relaxed fraternisation laws, and a strong recommendation that personnel be already familiar (and comfortable) with submarine operations aboard other vessels.
Amongst the Lyran fleet, each submarine has two separate crews (Black and White), enabling Scylla-class submarines to spend the vast majority of their time at sea, pausing only for resupply and yard maintenance.
Export
Scylla represents the cutting edge of survivable second-strike nuclear deterrence and delivery, as well as the forefront of submarine technology. As such, the Scylla is NOT available as a matter of course, and all purchases other than those to states allied to the Protectorate of Lyras must be cleared individually, on a case-by-case basis.
To states for whom purchase is authorised, each Scylla-class vessel is available for NS$40bn. DPRs are not available as a matter of course.
Queries and orders can be lodged through Lyran Arms.
