PERSONAL SUBMARINE WELDING FULL

The American Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo was said to travel at 63 knots. and British navies rushed to build weapons that could target the submarine. Upon learning of the Lira’s capabilities, the U.S. Needless to say, the prospect of the Lira prowling the seas upset the existing strategic balance between NATO forces and the USSR, to the latter’s benefit. It requires much automation to work properly, and the engine must be constantly heated so the liquified metal coolant won’t solidify. Such a reactor – as the Soviets later found out – has its difficulties. The solution in the Lira’s case was to utilize a liquified lead-bismuth mixture to cool the reactors, reducing submarine reactor size, and therefore increasing the submarine’s speed. The Lira’s designers sought to minimize this space, thereby reducing the size of the submarine and allowing for higher speeds. Despite these costs and risks, the titanium hull was a necessary component of the Soviet Union’s innovation strategy.

PERSONAL SUBMARINE WELDING FULL

Moreover, as was demonstrated in the building of the Lira-class submarines, titanium requires welders to work in hermetically sealed warehouses full of argon gas, adding further expense. Failures in the welding process, for example, can lead to the titanium becoming embrittled, lowering its strength. Manipulating large titanium panels for hull sections is especially hard. However, titanium is also three to five times more expensive than steel, and it is an extremely difficult material to work with. Titanium creates surfaces as strong as steel with half the weight, meaning a titanium hull can withstand greater pressure and allow for deeper dives. By building a submarine with a titanium hull and unique reactor – both innovations at the time – the Lira would become the fastest, deepest-diving submarine in the ocean, so fast that it could evade Western torpedoes. In order to do this, the Soviets would design the Lira-class. What Moscow needed was a submarine that could move faster and dive deeper than Western submarines. Aware of their strategic disadvantage in submarine warfare, and unable to compete in the areas of stealth and reliability, the Soviets sought to innovate. More specifically, the Soviet Union’s early nuclear submarines were known to be less stealthy and reliable than Western submarines. This experience, alongside existing technological advantages, gave the United States a strategic advantage in submarine warfare. had gained invaluable submarine and anti-submarine experience during the Pacific War and the Battle of the Atlantic. The USSR had acquired many of the most advanced German submarine types by the end of the war, but the U.S. In the decades after World War II, the United States leapt out in front of the Soviet Union in submarine technology. Indeed, the Lira is both the product and the cause of such an interaction. The Project 705 “Lira” nuclear submarine (NATO reporting name “Alfa”) is a great illustration of that dynamic. What made the Lira-Class Submarine special? Innovations in military technology are often the byproducts of strategic interactions between world powers and their economies.

Personal submarine welding