Discussion»Questions»Military» Naval warships are painted battleship gray as a camouflage upon the high seas; are submarines painted black to make less visible underwater?
Yes I have, The first nuclear submarine the Nautilus is on permanent display At the submarine force museum in Groton Connecticut, The museum and tours of the Nautilus are free to the public.
It is most for camo when they are surfaced. When submerged far enough, it makes no difference.
This post was edited by Element 99 at August 31, 2021 5:54 AM MDT
The black colour is that of the sound-absorbent coatings on them, but it does makes them harder to see when surfaced, where their profiles are very low anyway.
Underwater, the colour is unimportant because they are invisible optically from each other, and from ships and aircraft. Naval submarines do not have windows and underwater flood-lamps; and the periscope is used only to see what surface ships are in the vicinity.
They are detected by sonar, but by listening for them - warships and submarines of all navies do not prowl around emitting loud hunting "pings" all the time. They can "ping" if necessary, but do so only extremely sparingly because it reveals their own presence for a very long way around. The continual pinging myth is a Hollywood invention based on WW2 U-boat hunting tactics; and modern submarines patrol very, very quietly.
Echooos 