AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 264 of 332 space available place for the operator has to be adjusted. Strangely, there is water, water everywhere in the ocean but not a drop to drink on the submarine. Fresh water carried in tanks is always scarce and used very judiciously. There is no bathing and no shaving onboard. Water is only used for drinking and cooking. The occasional washing of face is permitted. Even though there is provision to convert sea water into potable water, this is only used as a last resort and not as a luxury. The crew uses disposable, medicated clothing, which they change once in four-days. The raison d'être of the submarine which is its war fighting ability is the very existence of the submarine. Submarines are generally used for attacking ships, other submarines and land targets. Gathering intelligence on enemy’s naval units stealthily and without being detected is another role. They are also used for dropping commandos and for clandestine warfare and lastly, submarines can be used to drop mines in the enemy’s harbour mouth stealthily to bottle the adversary's fleet within their own harbours. The periscope on a submarine is used to see objects when the submarine is just submerged below the water surface. Beyond this depth it runs blind on instruments like the Radar and Sonar. Every floating object in the water has an acoustic signature. Hence when the submarine is on patrol, every acoustic noise heard in the ocean is investigated and tracked through by the Sonar. Every noise is tracked electronically with computer driven state of the art systems on digital charts or maps and assessed whether they are hostile or friendly. Submarines then carry out attacks on hostile targets. Life on a submarine is very hard in the cramped living conditions. There are numerous valves and pipelines pertaining to hydraulics, high and low pressure air, sea water and hundreds of switches for electrical equipment. There must be about 200 km of electrical cables running in the submarine with electronics of about 3000 circuit boards. Machinery spaces are really tightly packed with pumps, motors, engines and all types of equipment which can be remotely operated from the machinery station. The most difficult task is to undertake repairs of machinery below deck in these cramped conditions. We have a full marine engineering department headed by a Marine Engineer Officer and electronics and electrical department by an Electronics & Electrical Officer. There are about 300 lead acid wet batteries in a conventional submarine each weighing at least a ton. These batteries have to be monitored, topped up with electrolyte and looked after. The space above these batteries racks is so small that a man has to crawl above them on a trolley to access them.