ADDITIONAL INFO

With plenty of photos
Image source is the Submarine Group Nine Facebook page unless stated otherwise.


For the unlikely event that the Ohio class submarine becomes disabled on the ocean floor and didn't implode from excessive water pressure, there are white markings on their hatches to aid rescue subs to dock with the disabled sub.












       

       
Missile hatches are opened above the surface of the ocean only for maintenance purposes.  Design does not allow a missile to be launched unless submerged.  The hull is certainly not designed to take the heat from the rocket engine.


Looks like someone doesn't know how to correctly lock wire a pair of fasteners.
IMAGE SOURCE: Flickr



Deactivated missiles on display showing off their massiveness.  The Trident D5 is the larger one and it's neighbors are the older Polaris and Trident C4 missiles.  This is partly why submarines have only gotten bigger since their inception.

















           
File:US Navy
                060517-N-6027E-004 Members of the media film inside a
                lock out chamber aboard the Ohio-class guided-missile
                submarine USS Florida (SSGN 728).jpgIn the post-Cold War era, a few of the Ohio class have been converted from their status as a nuclear deterrent to a more conventional role of a cruise missile platform.  Modifications include 22 missile tubes to hold a total of 154 smaller Tomahawk missiles and the remaining 2 tubes serving as lock-out chambers for the submersibles shown in the second image.  These modifications allow for a distinct advantage over fast attack submarines when utilized in current war zones since they carry many more Tomahawks and also have the space to support over twice as many Navy SEALs (60+).  Doing all of this changes their hull designation to SSGN.
IMAGE SOURCE: Wikimedia









The water is very good at hiding the true size of these submarines.








IMAGE SOURCE: Reddit

       




It is common for a submarine to run it's diesel generator on it's last few hours before returning to port as evidenced by the white plume of exhaust coming from this one's sail.  Along side the ship are the usual Coast Guard escort boats.  The protection of nuclear technology is so important that these escorts are carrying very dense containers on deck to act as a shield from explosive projectiles.  This is in addition to the fact that they are also very heavily armed.




https://media.spokesman.com/photos/2018/02/22/USS_MAINE.JPG.jpg

Even when shutdown in port, the reactor systems are usually kept in a relatively hot condition to facilitate a faster startup.  There are material concerns associated with heat up that normally make a cold start up very slow.  The side effect is that the engine room is always warm enough to encourage sea lions to use the hull as a beach.
IMAGE SOURCE: The Spokesman-Review








One of only a few watertight doors, which are the only way to move from one compartment to another.  In addition to preventing the spread of flooding into other compartments, they also serve as containment boundaries in the event of a reactor accident, fire, steam, etc.
IMAGE SOURCE: Amy Eckert









       
IMAGE SOURCE: Amy Eckert                                                                IMAGE SOURCE: navsource.org           
If you're really low in the hierarchy, your sleeping arrangements are like the left setup, always at risk of being woken when supply needs to get into the parts cabinets on either side of you.  Most people, however, get the setup on the right: a bunk room that sleeps 9 crew members with personal storage space being nothing more than the space under the bed.  The good news, in any case, is that no one has to share beds like they do on the smaller fast attack submarines.


Once you get inside of one, it really isn't that bad.  Soundproof walls, adjustable A/C vent, and a breathing mask.  What more can you ask for?

IMAGE SOURCE: This was literally my bunk.







     
IMAGE SOURCE: Foxtrot Alpha                                                            IMAGE SOURCE: National Geographic, Youtube




Internal communication becomes one of the most important factors during an emergency.  Because of this, the communication circuits are not powered by the electrical system at all.  Instead, the telephones are sound-powered.  The receiver converts the kinetic energy of sound waves into electricity like any other phone, but this signal alone is what converts back into sound on the other end's speaker.  There is no external electrical source to amplify the signal.
IMAGE SOURCE: Atomic Photographers Guild





What Is Inside a Submarine?
IMAGE SOURCE: reference.com

IMAGE SOURCE: Atomic Photographers Guild


IMAGE SOURCE: Amy Eckert

File:Sonar.jpg


Sonar isn't just a single person listening to the environment through headphones, it's an entire team and headphones playing only a partial role.  The Ohio class has many hydrophones and other detection equipment all over the ship.  Monitoring the ship's own noise is also part of the job.  To organize all this data, the signals get automatically translated into a visual representation on screens.
IMAGE SOURCE: Wikimedia




IMAGE SOURCE: National Geographic, Youtube


IMAGE SOURCE: navsource.org



Everything that vibrates is resiliently mounted with shock absorbers.  From something as small as 1/4" high pressure air pipe to the entire propulsion train free floating on giant rubber mounts.  Sound silencing is probably the reason why submarines frequently need to deliberately be as loud as possible in order to give surface ships a fighting chance during war games.
IMAGE SOURCE: National Geographic, Youtube



   
              IMAGE SOURCE: National Geographic, Youtube                                                                IMAGE SOURCE: Amy Eckert
The torpedo room is the largest room in forward compartment.  Not only does it store 8 torpedoes on either side of the ship for easy loading into one of the 4 torpedo tubes, but even more are stored on the room's center platform (shown here behind the men as empty).  Gone are the days of using block and tackle systems to move them around.  Instead, everything is equipped with hydraulics, including the floor so that it can be raised to the level of the center platform and the torpedoes can simply slide on rails to the outer edges.


Author: David Atwood    |    Physics 212    |    02 January 2019    |    Design: HTML5 UP