Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The most GODDESSDAMNED AWESOME THING EVER

aka 'some people have fantasy feet-ball teams, Police Girl has fantasy military hardware'

'Kay. So. Most awesome thing ever:

So take one of the six Soviet Project 941 Акула-class (NATO TYPHOON) SSBNs. Probably one of the three that were scrapped in reality by the Russian Federation (let us pause a moment here to wail and gnash teeth). Now, the Russkies, living in their post-Communist... utopia... of the '90s, are stripped for cash, as usual. So they decide to sell our dear friend, the missile boat.
Now a word on the Project 941. Like many other Soviet submarines, she is really better designed than a U.S. Navy boat- three times the reserve buoyancy of an Ohio-class (SSBN 726) [the comparable generation U.S.N. missile boat], better streamlining [*cough*sail*cough], and, quite frankly, a far more innovative design. All of these are common threads in U.S. versus Soviet submarines.
U.S. equipment, however, was generally fairly to far better than their Soviet equivalents. In particular, the Soviet RSM-52/R-39R (NATO SS-N-20 STURGEON) SLBM was far inferior in every way to the U.S. Trident D-5 SLBM, not least because the Soviets arrived late to the solid-fueled SLBM party. In any event, the Trident D-5 is more accurate, longer ranged, carries a larger total-yield payload (MIRV of 8 W-88 of 475-kT yield versus a MIRV of 10 100-kT Soviet warheads), and is smaller in all dimensions, to boot.
Now, with that in mind, let's go back to '90s-era Russia hating the AWESOME and all over a little revenue crunch. They sell their Project 941, naturally enough, to the French Navy. Yeah. Yeah.

Provided with the boat are a full loadout of twenty-two USET-80 533 mm torpedoes, of the wire-guided 20-kT nuclear warhead flavor, and maybe some nuclear-armed VA-111 шквал supercavitating rockets, to boot.
Now, by whatever means (I dunno, agreeing to re-join the unified NATO command structure a decade early, or something) they acquire 20 Trident D-5s, complete with full W-88 MIRV loadout [hey hey HEY, France is TOTALY AWESOME enough to get their hands on top-secret U.S. technology].
Wanna guess what they do with the Tridents? Here's a hint, in the form of the dimensions of the Trident D-5 and the R-39R:
Trident D-5: Length, 13.4 m; Diameter, 2.1 m.
R-39R: Length, 16 m; Diameter, 2.4 m.
The missile tubes on the Project 941 are large enough to accommodate the R-39R. Go back and read those dimensions again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, but I haven't gotten to the best part yet. The French Navy christens her the Verdun.

If you'll excuse me, gentle reader, my brain is melting from the awesome. Although you probably can't excuse me, as yours is too.


[ps this is an awesome book]

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