Word: depths
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...destroyers, two submarines, a squadron of Valley Forge-based Grumman 52F sub-hunting aircraft, a helicopter squadron, a land-based patrol squadron of P2Vs, blimps, 5,000 men, a vast electronic network of electronic eyes and ears. Its armament is a marvel of the Atomic Age: included are nuclear depth charges, nicknamed Betty and Lulu, each with sufficient explosive force to lift the entire U.S. Navy (901 ships) clear out of the water...
...months as a goblin killer, Thach has perfected techniques aimed at the mind of the submarine skipper, imprisoned in the ocean's depths. One of Thach's favorite tactics is nicknamed The Other Shoe, and it is designed to take advantage of the submariner's insatiable curiosity about what is happening on the surface. Instead of the expected salvo of two depth charges, Thach heaves only one from a destroyer. The submarine skipper waits anxiously for the second charge-just as a man in bed, hearing his upstairs neighbor drop one shoe, frets sleepily as he listens...
...helo dropped a Bloodhound-a practice acoustic torpedo of a type that would carry a nuclear warhead in battles. The orange tube disappeared into the water, spiraled down in its hunt for the right depth, leveled out and rammed the submarine, its wooden nose smashing forward near the port torpedo tubes. The aircraft turned and headed back to the flagship. Sea Leopard was destroyed. Nothing was left. Only the sea, ominous and black and still. And 40 miles away, on the bridge of the Valley Forge, Admiral Jimmy Thach silently studied the reports of the submarine's death...
...mission may be more urgent: submarine warfare is clearly going deep, deep, deeper. Conventional subs now dive about 750 ft., and some advanced models are capable of 1,000 ft. One growing antisub problem is that present sound gear penetrates accurately to only about 800 ft. Another is that depth charges sink too slowly (14 ft. per second) to hit a fast sub sailing deep at high speed, and the explosion is reduced by pressure. U.S. submariners are also reportedly anxious to design a vessel capable of operating as deep...
Strange Sub. Trieste research on how to kill an enemy sub far down is likely to change depth charges considerably. There is little point in making them bigger; nuclear charges fall no faster than others and are more expensive. But a curious discovery is that more energy may be released when a sphere is collapsed under water than when it is blown outward against pressure. To measure this, Navy scientists once sent a 6-in.-diameter hollow ball 3,500 ft. to the bottom. Collapsed by a spring trigger when it hit, it exploded with as much force...