V-287 class hunter-killer submarine
The V-287s were the first class of Antaran hunter-killer submarines (then still referred to as fleet boats) and the first series of boats built after the World War. As the nation shifted back towards a civilian economy, the navy cancelled its last batch of V-212s and instead started working on the next generation of fleet submarines. The snorkle, which first started appearing on select V-212s in 1347, was integrated from the start, though at the time still undergoing interations and improvement. Setups ranged from large and defective snorkles to more slimmed down versions that would become standard.
V-287 adopted a horizontally folding bow plane, copied from captured Sieg submarines mid-war, and her superstructure and hull become more streamlined. Her propulsion was also modernized and uprated, and combined with a more streamlined hull her underwater speed was vastly improved. As Hunter-Killer submarines, they were the first Antaran underwater boats to adopt an ASW mission. Acoustic torpedoes, first used during the war, saw promising improvements.
The navy invested heavily in improving its active and passive SONAR capabilities, evident by its two side-by-side SONAR projects SEAFIN and SEA-RCH throughout the late-50s and 60s. SEAFIN boats had three fin-like SONAR domes, evenly spaced. Not nearly as ambitious as SEA-RCH, and almost written off because of poor training, it still greatly improved the sub-to-sub capability of the boats they were fitted on. SEAFIN also gave boats the capability of firing wire-guided acoustic torpedoes. As would be doctrine for the next few decades, some of these torpedoes contained nuclear warheads.
SEA-RCH on the otherhand, was over-budget and a technical nightmare. Submarines sporting this suite had two notable bulges on the bow top and bottom, as well as two domes fore and aft of the sail. SEA-RCH boats lost to SEAFIN boats in wargames a majority of the time. While it seemed SEAFIN would be adopted fleet wide, a number of core issues were solved by the mid 60s, and the project would finally bare fruit. Though fewer boats ended up adopting the original SEA-RCH, it would pave way for the SEA-RCH II SONAR suite and become standard for submarines past the 70s.
The first batch of V-287s were commissioned in 1349, with the last coming in 1353.
Specifications
Surface displacement - 1600 tonnes
Top speed - 15.5 knots
Underwater speed - 18.5 knots
Range - 12 000nm at 10 knots
Test depth - 210 meters
Torpedoes - 8 launchers, 6 fore, 2 aft. 26 torpedoes.
Ships in class
V-287 to V-299. All vessels were scrapped or used as ASW targets by 1380, excluding V-292 - lost in action in 1364.