By the 1970s, Sweden’s civilian nuclear power plants were up and running. However, the neutral country’s nuclear experiments didn’t end. Sweden shifted to its diesel-powered, AIP-augmented conventional submarines - although the A-11A’s design had an influence on these later hunter-killers. Those concepts didn’t pan out, and by the early 1960s, the hazards of nuclear energy for military use were becoming more apparent. In the 1950s, there was a veritable nuclear mania when the world’s powers imagined a future of nuclear-powered cars, trucks, airplanes - and tiny reactors for the domestic home. Truth be told, there wasn’t much of a practical use for a small nuclear-powered Swedish submarine, and the design came at an anomalous, odd period in history anyways. In any case, no sailor ever spent any time in this bizarre nuclear mini-sub, as Sweden canceled the project in 1962. Nor would you want to hang around too long in the aft engine room, near the reactor - three and a half hours at most before hazardous radiation exposure. “Therefore a diesel generator would be used for maneuvering in port.” “The sides of the reactor compartment were minimally protected meaning that the reactor could not safely be operated in port,” Sutton wrote. One of the most remarkable features was the nuclear reactor shielding, or rather an insufficient amount of it, according to Sutton. That was a limitation, but the design saved on space since there was no torpedo room. The A-11A’s initial design had six torpedo tubes in a rotating launcher - firing two at a time like a double-barreled revolver - which could not reload. Above - a concept sketch for a revolving 10-tube torpedo array used in the A-10, another Swedish submarine design. With design work beginning in 1957, the proposed nuclear submarine - called the A-11A - was also small even by the standards of most submarines at 159 feet long, and contained some interesting design features such as a large hull-mounted hydroplanes, according to a detailed summary by Fredrik Granholm and submarine historian and illustrator H. The idea never left the drawing board, but had it, the vessel would have been rather unsafe for the crew - and possibly anyone else who happened to stray too close to the submarine when the reactor was active. The Swedish boats’ unique Stirling engines, using Air-Independent Propulsion, gives Gotland– and Sodermanland-class subs an advantage compared to most navies operating conventional diesel-engine submarines.īut Sweden at one point considered nuclear submarines. There are many places along the Swedish coast for stealthy submarines to hide, and they would likely face Russian vessels - the kind that may try to assist in a Russian attack on Sweden, remote as it seems. The Swedish navy, while small, has long reserved funds for submarines given its location and the likely direction of conflict. That was due in part to the ultra-quiet Stirling engines that power the Gotland. In 2005, one of them - the 200-foot-long HMS Gotland - sneaked up and virtually destroyed the American Nimitz-class carrier USS Ronald Reagan in a simulated war game. The US sent the submarine to South Korea in 2017 is a show of force when tensions were on the rise with North Korea.In terms of modern diesel-electric submarines, it’s hard to beat Sweden. South Korea said it is one of the largest submarines in the world and can be armed with over 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The USS Michigan, launched in 1980, is built to carry Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the US Navy said. The North Korean leader has been defiant, firing off two short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday night as his regime protested massive live fire-exercises between the US and South Korea that ended this week just south of the border that divides the two Koreas. The displays of US military might are meant to serve as a reminder of a warning Biden issued to leader Kim Jong Un during a meeting with the South Korean president that a nuclear strike by North Korea would be suicidal. The visit comes after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol won assurances during a summit with President Joe Biden in April to strengthen extended deterrence measures, including more regular deployments of nuclear-armed submarines.
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