Supertest: Tier VI U.S. Submarine Cachalot
3 min readThe Cachalot-class was a pair of submarines built by the U.S. Navy under the limits of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Due to the limitations of the treaty, the Cachalot had poor patrol endurance and once the Gato-class entered service, both submarines were relegated to training duty.
USS Cachalot (SS-170) herself was launched on 19 October 1933 and commissioned on 1 December 1933. The big part of her inter-war service saw her taking part in various fleet exercises. In October 1937, she received a much-needed overhaul, including the replacement of her engines with General Motors Winston engines.
The submarine was present during the attack on Pearl Harbor but suffered no damage or loss, having only one of her men wounded. She conducted 3 patrols during the war, gathering vital intelligence on Japanese positions and had the opportunity to damage an enemy tanker during the second patrol.
With the combination of her age and poor endurance for war patrols, the Cachalot was sent back to New London in late 1942 where she served until the end of the war as a training ship. She was decommissioned on 17 October 1945 and sold for scrap on 26 January 1947.
Just like U-69, it’s a submarine so it’s heavy work in progress. You put that pitchfork down Billy and you consider that for now, they might only appear in a separate game mode and there are a lot of things that will potentially change before their release.
Hull | Engine | Hydrophone | Torpedoes |
Cachalot | Propulsion: 2 770 hp | unlisted | Mk22 mod. 1 |
Tier | VI |
Health | 9 900 HP |
Displacement | 1 650 tons |
Main Armament (NON-FUNCTIONAL) | |
76.2 mm/50 deck gun | 1 x 1 76.2 mm |
Torpedo Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 10.500 km |
533-mm | 1 x 4 533 mm at the front 1 x 2 533 mm at the rear |
Maximum speed | 24 kts |
Turning Circle Radius | 590 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 3.1 s |
Surface Detectability | 4.86 km |
Air Detectability | 1.92 km |
(What allows submarines in games to see their surroundings below the surface.)
Acoustic wave lifetime | 7 s |
Acoustic wave speed | 1 500 m/s |
Update Frequency | 10 s |
For that section, there are a lot of unknowns since we are dealing with completely new mechanics so more than the others, take it with a truckload of salt.
Battery | |
Battery capacity | 570 |
Speed required to recharge | 1/4 of max speed or less |
Recharge rate | 3.6 (units/seconds?) |
Sonar ping | |
Reload time | 10.0 s |
Wave hit lifetime | 35.0 s |
Wave range | 10.5 km |
Wide ping | |
Width | 0.88 |
Energy cost | 25 |
Ping speed | 63 kts |
Narrow ping | |
Width | 0.35 |
Energy cost | 25 |
Ping speed | 100 kts |
1 x 6 533 mm Mk22 mod. 1 | |
Reloading Time | 87 s |
Maximum Distance | 10.5 km |
Firing angles at the front | -10° to 10° (4 torpedoes) |
Firing angles at the rear | -10° to 10° (2 torpedoes) |
Damage | 9 750 |
Flooding Chance | 170 % |
Speed | 64 kt |
Surface Detectability | 1.3 km |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s | Maximum Depth Number of charges: 2 Work time: 180 s Cooldown: 180 s | Engine Boost Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Effect: +8% Maximum speed |
The armor
Just like U-69, Cachalot features a double-hull configuration. The outer hull is 10 mm thick and the pressure hull is 19 mm thick.
Early observations
Funnily enough, the U.S. submarine is the one having the longest torpedo range and speed of all 3 nations for now. However, these torpedoes lack the damage output since they have a low damage per hit as well as a longer reload.
Even though she has a bigger battery reserve than the 2 others, she is actually only second in terms of number of pings that she can do before recharging due to the higher energy cost per ping.
Overall, it looks like she will require a more passive gameplay than the others with the long-range torpedoes as well as the rest of her characteristics. Her Maximum Depth consumable is the worst of all 3 submarines with only 2 charges and a long cooldown. She doesn’t have the Repair Party like the S-1 either and has the worst concealment.
With her good mobility, she might also be intended to be more for flanking actions. Staying outside of the hunting range of enemy destroyers while launching torps on the sides of the enemy lines. Then again, it’s pure theory crafting.
Nice article 🙂
Damn… I hope they would allow useable guns for surfaced submarines, and that is for a sole reason, that being the MN Surcouf submersible heavy cruiser.