3 ms·
At hypersonic speeds, hitting the water starts to resemble slamming into the side of a tank. I'm not sure how that could be managed while keeping the warhead in
by M_Grey 10y ago
At hypersonic speeds, hitting the water starts to resemble slamming into the side of a tank. I'm not sure how that could be managed while keeping the warhead intact, and of course, you'd need to lift all of that armoring in the first place, and the drive to make it work underwater and produce cavitation effects.
As to how deep... not that deep, especially for a boomer.
- ryanmarsh 10y agoHaving hit the water at 60mph. Can confirm, felt like hitting the side of a tank.
- M_Grey 10y agoDamn... how did that happen to you?
- dredmorbius 10y agoIf free-fall, that would require a drop height of about 40m (130 ft).
- ryanmarsh 10y agoI've always been afraid of the high dive. Unfortunately I did not share the same fear of powered water craft.
- dredmorbius 10y agoAin't that th' thing about life? So many opportunities to learn new things!
- jehanson 10y agoThere may be some survivorship bias here. Pleanty of people report that hitting water at high speed "feels like" hitting something solid. Very few people are alive to tell us what hitting somehting solid at high speed feels like.
- idoh 10y agoHow did that happen? Fall off a speed boat?
- ryanmarsh 10y agoModified jet ski with the governor removed from the engine. I was 16. My buddy and I were taking turns trying to throw each other off. It hurt. Hit so hard I got water under my eyelids. Felt like my face exploded. Knocked the wind out of me. Luckily: life vest.
- lostsock 10y agoI've also fallen off a jetski at high speeds (~90km/h). The impact of the lifejacket trying to keep me above water broke a rib, but quite possibly saved my life.
- sqeaky 10y agoWhen waiting for a retaliatory strike a sub can be at any operational depth, it doesn't have to wait at firing depth near the surface. It could potentially be a kilometer below the surface. If some hearsay is to be believed it could be resting on the ocean floor. There is also the matter of targeting these things. Water absorbs radar and if they are silent you have no way to target your bunker buster.