Guys,
I’ve seen a number of different answers to this question in various places, so I thought I’d see if anyone has more definitive information. What color are modern submarines below the waterline. I’ve seen anti-fouling red suggested, but then there was a school of thought that suggested subs, such as the Los Angeles-class vessels, are all black. Any answers out there?
Cheers, Aaron
I don’t know for deffinate, but i was under the impression they were all black. Or is that just the Hollywood subs.
So i did a search on google and found a few pics. Are you just looking for US subs, or any.
This is the San Fransico a few years back after an accident. And it does indeed look red low down.
And this is HMS vanguard when it was launched. I think thats a dark grey lower down.
I think it depends upon time period.
USS Corpus Christy, in what appears to be a recent photo and with a dull black or very dark gray lower hull
USS Greenville in a definitely red lower hull
_-_dry_dock_Pearl_Harbor_(3).jpg)
the new USS Texas is all Black
Stik is correct - it depends on the time frame. I don’t know the exact date, but say around the mid-2000s was when the subs started coming out of the yards and builders with the totally black hull. Prior to that it was the more traditional anti-fouling from the mid point down. Note that the new antifouling you see has quite a bit more gloss to it than past coatings.
Subfixer will probably have better information.
As a retired submariner with six boats under my belt, retiring in 1996, I have seen boats in the anti-fouling red and black configuration. I have seen boats that were painted all black. But, I have never seen one that was painted a dark grey on the lower hull. That is a new one for me. And, these differences did appear throughout my tenure in submarines from the late 1970’s through 1996.
What does really interest me is that the masts and antennaes seem to be sporting a new color. When I retired, submarines had the familiar splotched appearance of silvery grey and black. Now, they appear to be an almost soot-black or dark grey, at least in Groton.
Bill
Is it possable that those sub with what look like grey bottoms are actually black. maybe a different type of paint and its catching the liught differently. Its really hard to tell.
The new boats are covered in rubber tiles. They are supposed to help absorb active sonar sound waves, and reduce sound transmitted from the hull to the water for passive sonars to pick up. Look closely and you can see the tile gridwork. I would say that it is quite possible that the tiles are black but look gray due to lighting and fading of the rubber, just like on car tires.
The subs look to be completely-wrapped in the acoustic tiles, but if you’ll look closely at the Corpus Christi and the Texas, the anti-fouling coating covers all of the lower part of the hull, even over the tiles.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
Guys,
Thanks for all the information. It helps tremendously.
Cheers, Aaron
Where is Subfixer when we need him???
Guys,
I believe the Catholic Church raised a ruckus over the name of Christ being used on a warship when she was commissioned, so… it is officially the CITY of Corpus Christi SSN 705
Reid
Yes they did…[;)]
I was stationed onboard PCU Michigan (SSBN 727) when PCU Corpus Christi was being built at Electric Boat. For those who don’t know, PCU simply means Precommissioning Unit. The boats are not USS until commissioned. Anyway, I distinctly remember the controversy surrounding the name “Corpus Christi,” or “Body of Christ”. Anyway, the Navy agreed to change the name to City of Corpus Christi as a way of satisfying both sides of the issue. It seems to have worked.
Bill
I can personally verify that our SSBN/SSGNs uses the matte finish low friction black high solid coating over a red oxide hull primer. This was changed to help with damaging salt water, algae and preventing the “sacrificial node” effect that plagues Ruski boats. I’d give you more info but our hull coating and repair work is all contracted work not done by Navy HTs or BMs anymore
-STS2
During WWII, they have a manual on ship camouflage. Don’t the US Navy have one now?
Technically a classified book because of teh types of coatings they use but I’d call it more of a paint by numbers kind of book. The old manual was discontinued for good after the conclusion of the Cold War, since the improvements to radar have made surface ships easy to spot and submarines spent very little time on surface transit or at PD…Satin Black is where it’s at now
But, the anechoic tiles had started to be used by the early 1990’s, if not before.
It’d be classified if so! [;)]
A lot of them are commonly painted matt black and dull red.
Bissyboat