Customer Reviews

Submarine Technology for the 21st Century

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You could, I suppose,go to Groton and do a stint in sub school, or, failing that, attend a high-price seminar on the state of undersea warfare. And subscriptions to Janes Fighting Ships and the Submarine Review wouldn't hurt. Or you could sit down with this very managable, up-to-date account written by a non-tech journalist for the lay reader that will set you dreaming, each nigh as you lay it by your bedside, of air-independent diesel engines, accoustic cladding, and some trending information that sometimes seems to cross the line into science fiction. I've read 'em all, and this one ranks alongside the Waller and Sontag & Drew sub books as best of the best.

This book was wonderful, if a bit small. It has sections on Air Independent Propulsion, Nuclear Propulsion and it's problems, new hull designs, better sonar, additional quieting, better weapons, and a summary. Each section both reviewed things I already knew and offered new data.

My only problem is that the book is a bit small. I wish it were larger and covered either more topics or more depth. As it is I finished the book in two easy days.

The strength of this book is the breadth of coverage. Starting with chapters on propulsion, nuclear, air-independent combustion, and fuel cells, the author then covers hydrodynamics, acoustics, weapons, sensors and then tries to wrap up the overall outlook for the next few decades. The weakness of this book is that it reads like a collection of magazine articles dated about 12 years ago. Since the author was editor of Navy News & Undersea Technology from 1988 to 1994 this is not suprising. Although a lot of information is presented, much of it is in the form of extensive quotations from folk trying to sell one technology or another. This is not wholly bad, but there is little or no attempt to set up a framework for independent judgement about the technical alternatives being considered. No real mathematics is used in description and actual data is, perhaps unsuprisingly, sparse and sketchy. Each chapter reads a bit like a collection of articles rather than a structured essay, but if you read a lot of defence magazines it will seem familiar.

A redeeming merit of the book is that the extensive attributed quotations are trackable and accessible and there is a useful appendix of related websites. To some extent I agree with another reviewer that more information can be found from current open web sources than in this book, but it is a fair introduction in one short volume. There are some small editing glitches typical of on-demand publishing but they do not get in the way of the content.

Content is very good and the book pretty much covers everything.

One issue, however, the production of this copy was a bit sloppy with a

number of repeat pages and a few pages that are badly shifted to the right.

Please do not waste your money on this book. Most of the books content can be found on the internet FREE.
I wish someone would have wrote an honest review before I wasted my money. You can buy this book and findout the hardway!