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The Russian Ministry of Defence has confirmed that an expedition has been launched to attempt to locate a Soviet Navy submarine that was lost off the northern coast of Japan in the closing weeks of World War II. Russian Navy hydrographic ships will begin combing the waters of La Perouse Strait between Japan and the Sakhalin region with the aim of finding the wreckage of the Leninets-class submarine L-19. The submarine’s crew last made radio contact in late August 1945, just days following Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Japan’s surrender to the Allies to bring an end to the hostilities. An earlier attempt to locate the wreck was made in 2006. However, this expedition found only a freighter and the US Navy Gato-class submarine USS Wahoo, which was lost along with its entire crew as a result of a Japanese air attack in October 1943. The search for L-19 will focus on the western portion of La Perouse Strait, which is where the submarine’s crew last reported their position. The submarine, along with its entire 62-strong crew, was lost due to still unknown causes on its first and only wartime patrol since entering service in 1939.

On November 10, 2019, a private research group, Lost 52 Project, announced it had found the wreck of Grayback off the coast of Okinawa, in June 2019. The submarine sits upright on the bottom in 1,400 feet (430 m) of water, with severe damage aft of the conning tower, consistent with reports of a direct bomb hit in that area. Said to be searched for in the wrong area due to a wrong translation of an intercepted Japanese message. NYT article Wiki article

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1986666/taiwan-starts-designing-home-built-attack-submarine

I've taken this discussion to Warhips1 before, but those who know don't tell and those who were dong the most talking clearly didn't have any clue. I don't expect much information to come of this but thought I'd kick it out there. Anyone know what is a typical speed that a modern D/E boat can make snorting all the way, assuming they are 'floating the load' as one individual once put it to me? Basically I'm looking for absolute upper transit speed, disregarding 'indiscretion'. Has some bearing on what countries could afford what kind of boat to deploy over what range--for instance the Soryu and Collins seem like much longer range animals than their PLAN or European cousins. WWII Fleet boats had four diesels and a hull optimized for surface running; they could do 20 knots indefinitely. Simple back of the envelope calculations on modern European and Kilo type boats seem to indicate they couldn't do anything close to this with their power plants; a dozen knots seems as the upper limit...further more I've been told a more typical transit speed is ~6 knots, but I assume that is with occasional snorting, not constant. Without knowing more math and having values like the efficiency and hotel load there's little conclusion an amateur can deduce, though I assume anyone who operates a Kilo/212/Gotland/Song/etc has a very good idea of the limitations. They seem to be roughly in the same tonnage and power range and the non-linear relationship of power to speed (cube rate?) for a boat should make anything but a major difference in power yield a similar speed. Another thing, does anyone know if/what is the upper limit a snorkel or other mast type could actually withstand the pressure of being raised during snort? I assume all boats have some upper limit on what masts can take what speeds without incurring damage; I can't see a nuke fan tailing water off its search scope at 30 knots even if anyone thought it was a good idea. I know the Collins class boats were built with several diesels and a large battery bank but no AIP on the assumption (so I've heard) that AIP didn't generate the power density to really aid in transit times compared to more engines running during quicker snorts. I assume the trade off is a larger snorkel and less fuel efficiency combined with increase mechanical complexity and cost.