Surcouf

The Surcouf (N N 3) was a cruiser submarine in service with the French Navy. Launched in 1929, it was commissioned on April 16, 1934. It was designed by the French engineer Robert Surcouf. It was the largest submarine in the world until the emergence of the Imperial Japanese Navy I-400 submarine launched in 1944.

After the German invasion of France in May 1940, it served with the French free forces from June 1940. However, it would be sunk long before the war ended, not by the Germans but by an American ship. It was accidentally sunk by the US steamer Thompson Lykes in the Gulf of Mexico on February 18, 1942. The American ship had rammed the Surcouf, opening a gaping crack through which tons of water rushed in until it went down to the bottom of the ocean.

Technical Features

The Surcouf (N N 3) had a double hull, heavy gun armament as it was fitted with two 203mm naval guns, which was quite unusual for a submarine. It was also equipped with fire control system, a motor boat, and cargo compartment. Its power plant allowed it to sail for long distances without mooring at port, more than 18,000 km.

Specifications

Length: 110 m (361 ft)

Beam: 9 m (29 ft, 6 in)

Displacement: 4,304 tons (submerged)

Draft: 7.25 m (23 ft, 9 in)

Power Plant: 4 Sulzer Diesel engines; 2 electric motor; 2 shafts, generating 7,600 HP.

Armament: eight 550mm and four 400mm torpedo tubes, four in bow, the other external; two 203mm guns, and two 37mm AA guns.

Compliment: 118 sailors and officers

The French submarine Surcouf in 1937

 

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USS New Mexico (BB-40)

The USS New Mexico (BB-40) was a battleship used by the US Navy during World War II. In this armed conflict, she carried out missions both in the Atlantic and the Pacific Theater of Operations. It had been laid down in 1915, launched in 1917, and commissioned on May 20, 1918. However, it did not saw combat action during the First World War.

The USS New Mexico BB-40 was the first of series of three battleships, the others being the USS Mississippi BB-41 and the Idaho BB-42. All three of them had identical hulls and measurement, with improved underwater armor protection in relation to the Pensilvania BB-38, which had been launched in 1916. They were fitted with twelve 356-mm (14-in) naval guns, which were set up in three triple turrets: two turrets on the fore deck, and the other on the aft deck.

When the Japanese fleet launched the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the three USS New Mexico class battleships were operating in the Atlantic Ocean. In July 1942, they were transferred to the Pacific to be aircraft carrier escorts and to provide fire support to the US landing troops on Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Saipan. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Philippine Sea, they were hit hard by kamikaze combat aircraft, but they were not serious damaged as they were repaired and kept operating for the remainder of the war.

Specifications

Type: Battleship

Length: 190.2 m (624 ft)

Beam: 29.7 m (97.4 ft)

Draft: 9.1 m (30 ft)

Displacement: 33,000 tons (full load)

Power Plant: 4 steam turbines, with 4 shafts and 4 propellers, and 9 boilers, generating 27,500 HP.

Armor: 343/203mm-thick on belt; 76mm-thick on deck.

Armament: twelve 356-mm-caliber guns; fourteen 127-mm and four 76-mm AA guns

The USS New Mexico BB-40 in the 1930s after having been refitted with new power plant and thicker armor.

 

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Triomphant Class Submarine

A Triomphant class submarine is one of four strategic missile submarines in service with the French Navy. They are nuclear-powered and fitted with stealth technology. They were built on the shipyards of Cherbourg, Normandy, France, by the DCNS firm. They are Le Triomphant, Le Temeraire, Le Vigilant, Le Terrible, being commissioned in 1997, 1999, 2004, and 2010 respectively.

Preceded by the Redoutable class, these French submarines are armed with M-51 ballistic missiles, which have a 4,200-km range and carry six warheads, and eighteen torpedoes. They are fitted with a nuclear reactor, two steam turbines, one electric motor, and one shaft pump jet propulsor. They cruise and patrol the waters of the Atlantic, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean.

Specifications

Length: 138 m (453 ft)

Beam: 12.50 m (41 ft)

Displacement: 14,335 tons (submerged)

Draft: 10.60 m (34.8 ft)

Power Plant: K15 pressurized  water-cooled reactor

Speed: 25 knots

Range: unlimited distance.

Complement: 111

Below, a Triomphant-class submarine, Le Temeraire, sailing in the Atlantic Ocean

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Deutschland Class Pocket Battleship

A Deutschland class pocket battleship was one of three thickly armored heavy cruisers, which were in service with the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during World War II. Since they were smaller in size than a conventional battleship, they were referred to as pocket battleships. The reason for their reduced hull length and weight was that the Treaty of Versailles, signed right after WW1, forced Germany to limit their fleet tonnage. Although, technically speaking, they were heavy cruisers, they were fitted with much thicker armor than these type of ships, hence their name in German Panzerschiff.

The three Deutschland class pocket battleships were: 1) Deutschland, which was laid and built by the Deutsche Werke on Kiel's shipyards, Schleswig-Holstein, being commissioned in 1933; 2) Admiral Scheer, which was produced by the Reichsmarinewerft on the Wilhelmshaven's Imperial shipyards, entering service in 1934; 3) Admiral Graf Spee, which was also built on the Wilhelmshaven's Imperial Shipyards, as it was commissioned in 1936. In German, all three were known as Panzerschiffe.

Renamed Lützow, the Deutschland took part in several military operations in both North and Baltic Sea during the war; it was sunk on April 16, 1945, by British bombers during a RAF raid while she was moored at Swinemünde naval base. Admiral Scheer, on the other hand, would spend most of the war in the North Atlantic Ocean and North Sea, attacking and sinking Allied convoy merchant ships; it was serious damaged on April 9, 1945, by Allied dive bombers. Admiral Graf Spee lived a short life as she would be scuttled by her crew on Rio de La Plata River, off the coast of Uruguay in December 1939.

Armament

The Deutschland class pocket battleships were fitted with six 280-mm naval guns set up in two triplet turrets; eight 150-mm guns in single turrets; and eight 53-mm torpedo tubes.

Specifications

Type: Heavy Cruiser

Length: 186 m

Beam: 21,34 m

Displacement: 15,180 tons (full load)

Draft: 7.25 m

Power Plant: eight MAN Diesel Engines, with two propellers, delivering 54,000 HP.

Speed: 28.3 knots

Range: 16,900 km (9,100 nautical miles)

Crew: 1,000 sailors and officers

Below, Admiral Scheer in the Summer of 1939 in the Baltic Sea.

Admiral Graf Spee in late 1937.

 

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IJN Musashi

The IJN Musashi was a Yamato-class battleship used by Japan in World War II. This powerful vessel was launched on November 1, 1940, entering service on August 5, 1942; thus, it did not take part in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which had taken place on December 7, 1941. Together with her sister ship, Yamato, it had the strongest armor and the most powerful naval guns ever fitted to a battleship.

The keel of Musashi had been laid on a slipway, in Nagasaki yard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, on March 29, 1938. It had two catapults as it could carry up to seven float-planes in the below-deck hangar. Her launching was done by stealth as her construction had been kept secret.

Service History

As soon as it had been commissioned, the IJN Musashi was attached to the combined fleet, under Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, replacing her sister ship Yamato as the fleet's flagship on February 11, 1943. It participated in naval operations off the coast of Truk and Brunei. The IJN Musashi, Yamato, and Magato made up the vertebral column of Vice Admiral Kunta's Force A fleet in the naval battle of Leyte Gulf on October 23, 1944, off the coast of Philippines. It would be sunk on the second day of this military engagement, on October 24, by US Navy's Helldiver and Avenger dive-bombers, which had taken off the USS Intrepid and the USS Essex carriers.

Below, the IJN Musashi sailing near the coasts of Brunei, Borneo, Southeast Asia, in 1943

Specifications

Length: 263 m

Beam: 38.9 m

Draft: 10.45 m

Displacement: 64,000 tons (empty)

Armor: up to 410-mm-thick steel plate on ship belt. 230-mm-thick on decks.

Power Plant: four geared steam turbines, which put out 150,000 HP. Steam to the turbines was fed by twelve Kanpon boilers.

Speed: 27 knots

Crew: 2,500 sailors and officers

Armament: nine 460-mm (18 in) naval guns, which were mounted in three triplet turrets, two on fore deck, and one on aft deck. Twelve 155-mm guns; and twelve 127-mm AA guns.

The Musashi moored off the coast of Truk in July 1944.

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B-871 Alrosa

The B-871 Alrosa is a Kilo class submarine in service with the Russian Navy. From September 2019 to February 2022, it was completely upgraded as it was fitted out with the most advanced sensors and radars systems and ultra-stealth materials to carry out special missions. After having been tested for six months, it is operating in the Black Sea right now as a special attachment and reinforcement to the Russian submarines flotilla of the Black Sea Fleet. Now, it is a different kind of submersible warship as it is fitted out with unique features for special missions.

Technical Characteristics

The Alrosa is propelled by a turbine without screw propellers as it is driven by a pump jet propulsion system. It means it can sail faster without the detectable cavitation noise. This technical fact enables the submarine to move stealthily in the shallow waters adjacent to the coasts. This high-tech submarine was also fitted with two layers of ultra-stealthy materials that muffle the most insignificant noise that could be generated inside the boat.

Weapons

The Alrosa is equipped with four tubes to launch hypersonic anti-ship and cruise missiles to attack targets on land from of 4,700 km away. Yes, it carries inside her bowels 3M-54 Kalibr and the powerful Zircon missiles. It also has six torpedo tubes for eighteen smart torpedoes.

Specifications

Length: 73.8 m

Beam: 9.9 m

Displacement: 4,000 tons (submerged)

Draft: 6.2 m

Range: 7,500 nautical miles.

Below, the Kilo-class Alrosa moored at a naval base in Crimea

 

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US Navy in 1944

The US Navy in 1944 was powerful enough to defeat Japan. It had made possible the successful island-hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater. It had increased its size about 20 times from what it used to be in December 1941, when the United States of America entered World War II right after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By then, the aircraft carrier had become more important as an strategic warship than the battleship as it could project more fire power to a much longer range than the latter, thanks to its squadrons of bombers and fighter aircraft it carried on its deck and in the storage area. As a result, the number of carriers had multiplied in relation to the number of battleship. In the Atlantic, in order to fight against the German U-Boats, a large number of destroyers had been built and deployed by the USA's shipbuilding industry and Navy.

By 1944, the American navy's aircraft carriers had clearly established the Allied air superiority in the skies over the Pacific and Atlantic, as it was essential to victory and for survival of the a fleet. By then, the Essex-class had added 24 new carriers to the already in service Yorktown-class, which included the USS Enterprise (CV-6). The Essex could carry up to 90 aircraft onboard, including two new lethal fighters: the F6F Hellcat and the F4F Corsair, which were able to defeat the Japanese A6M Zero. Not only the number of surface warships had increased but also the number of submarines, with the introduction of the Balao-class and the Tench-class, with a about 60 additional submarines in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the battleship was relegated to provide fire support to landing Allied forces on the Pacific islands.

With the US Navy 3rd and 7th fleet having been beefed up, the US Navy and US Marine Corps were able to obtain major historical victory over the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of Operation. They successfully captured Guam, Tinian, and Saipan, which belonged to the Mariana groups of islands, and to thoroughly beat the Imperial Japanese fleet at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944. In October, the TF-38 and TF-77, of the 3rd and 7th Fleet respectively, defeated the Japanese combined fleet, which lost 4 carriers, 3 battleship and 10 cruisers.

Below, the USS Yorktown (CV-10) in October 1944. It had just been commissioned to replace the Yorktown CV-5, which had been sunk during the Battle of Midway.

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Akagi Aircraft Carrier

The Akagi aircraft carrier had first been designed as a battlecruiser, which would be converted into a carrier between 1923 and 1927. The conversion was the result of the Washington Naval Disarmament Treaty, which forced the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) to reduce its tonnage and, hence, the number of warships, leaving the IJN with a surplus in battlecruisers and battleships to be scrapped. Thus, the need for combat aircraft platforms led the Japanese government to convert these warships into aircraft carriers.

The conversion work on the Akagi began in 1923 and it was completed in March 1927, with a 210-meter-long flight deck and two funnels at its starboard edge. However, ten years later, in 1937, it would be completely rebuilt, with a small island superstructure on the port side of vessel, and a full length flight deck (260-m long). It was hoped that a port side island would simplify operations when sailing alongside other carriers. The IJN Akagi would take part in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and it was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Nagumo. It also participated in a series of Japanese raids in the East Indies and Indian Ocean, sinking the British carrier Hermes.

Below, the Akagi in 1939, with a Yokosuka B4Y torpedo-bomber in the foreground. This biplane aircraft would be replaced with the Nakajima B5Ns.

The IJN Akagi also took part in the Battle of Midway. She and Kaga carrier attacked the island on June 4, 1942, suffering slight damage. However, at about 10:30 AM, she was attacked by dive-bombers that had taken off the USS Enterprise, being struck twice. One of the bombs burst into the hangar, which started a fire that spread throughout the rest of the carrier. As a result, the Akagi was abandoned and scuttled by a Japanese destroyer.

Specifications

Type: aircraft carrier

Length: 260.6 m (855 ft)

Beam: 31.4 m (103 ft)

Draft: 8.6 m (28 ft, 3 in)

Power Plant: 4-shaft geared steam turbines, delivering 133,000 HP.

Maximum Speed: 31 knots

Aircraft: 21 Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero' fighters; 21 Aichi D3A 'Val' dive-bombers; 21 Nakajima B5N 'Kate' torpedo-bombers.

Armament: six 200mm, six twin 120mm, and 14 twin 25mm Anti-Aircraft guns.

Below, the IJN Akagi sailing in the Pacific Ocean in 1938

Front view of the Akagi. Photo taken around 1940.

 

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K-157 Vepr

The K-157 Vepr is a nuclear-powered, Akula-II class submarine in service with the Russian Navy since 1995. Also known as Project 971U, it was modernized and updated with new armament and power plant between 2016 and 2017 at the Nerpa shipyard. It is now part of the Northern Fleet. It is an attack submarine, which can destroy targets on sea and on land, using its wide array of missiles and torpedoes.

Technical Characteristics

Having been completely overhauled, the K-157 Vepr is 3 meter longer than it used to be, when it was an Akula-I class submarine. The added length was employed for additional stealth technology, making of it one of the most surreptitious submarines in the world. Thus, it displaces 700 tons more than it used to. It also features the high-tech MGK-540 Skat-3 sonar system, which can pick up the slightest vessel noise from 200 km away. Most experts agree that it is quieter than the US Navy's Los Angeles class submarines.

Armament

The Project 971U, Vepr, is equipped with a wide variety of weapons. It is fitted with 40 Kalibr hypersonic missiles, which can be used to attack both enemy ships and land targets, eight 533mm torpedo tubes, which fires the latest generation of smart torpedoes; Onix anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as surface-to-air missiles.

Specifications

Length: 113.3 m

Beam: 13.6 m

Draft: 9.7 m

Displacement: 8,450 tons

Power Plant: one 190 MW pressurized water nuclear reactor, with one 43,000 HP steam turbine and one 7-bladed propeller; two retractable electric propulsors for low speed.

Speed: 35 knots (underwater)

Crew: 60

Below, the K-157 Vepr (Project 971U) Akula II submarine in the Baltic Sea during test trials

 

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Russian Black Sea Fleet

The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been strategically important since the time of Imperial Russia. Founded in 1783, during the reign of Catherine II, the Great, it has been the main military tool used by Russia and the Soviet Union to exert its geopolitical presence in the Black Sea region and beyond, as it is connected to the Mediterranean Sea.

Although it had been reduced in size, since it had fallen in importance right after the Cold War, with the CIA-backed coup in Ukraine, in 2014, the Russian government saw right away the urgent need to quickly seize and secure Crimea and its naval base of Sevastopol to keep the strategic control of these waters. Thus, since then, what used to be a Russian flotilla in that region has been increased into a powerful fleet armed with hypersonic missiles. Aside from the Sevastopol port, the naval base of Novorossiysk is an important anchorage harbor for refit of this Russian Navy.

Black Sea Fleet Warships

Today, as of May 19, 2023, the backbone of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is composed of three large naval units: the 30th Surface Fleet Division, the 4th Independent Submarine Brigade, and the 197th Assault Ship Brigade, plus a small Coast Defense Ship Brigade. The surface fleet consists of 2 Krivak-class and 3 Admiral Grigorovich-class guided-missile frigates; and 5 Grisha-class, 5 Buyan-M-class, 2 Bora-class, 2 Tarantul-class, and 1 Steregushchy-class corvettes.

Meanwhile, the Independent Submarine Brigade is made up of 7 improved Kilo-class and 1 Lada-class submarines. Although they are diesel-powered submarines, they are extremely stealthy and they are fitted with hypersonic missiles, aside from conventional torpedoes. The Assault Ship Brigade is composed of 7 Ropucha-class landing ships.

Summary- Total numbers of warships

5 Frigates armed with cruise missiles and torpedoes.

15 Corvettes, about 7 of them fitted with hypersonic Kalibr missiles.

8 Diesel-powered attack submarines, all armed with hypersonic and supersonic cruise missiles, being characterized for their stealth technology.

Below, a cruise missile being launched from Admiral Essen (an Adm. Grigorovich-class frigate)

Below, Adm. Grigorovich frigate in the Mediterranean Sea

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