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Are the rockets launched from submarines in a horizontal or vertical position?

I mean for the space launches like Volna and Shtil.

This article says

By reaching orbit, LauncherOne has become the first liquid fueled, horizontally launched rocket to do so.

Related question:

Has a rocket from a torpedo tube ever reached space?

RonJohn
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Joe Jobs
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2 Answers2

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A ICBM rocket launched from a submarine should leave the water as fast as possible. Therefore the rocket has to leave the water vertically.

The rocket is blown out of the submarine by using compressed air, it is ignited in air, not in the water. The rocket is stored in vertical position within the submarine. To be launched successfully, the rocket is launched from a very shallow depth, it should not be destroyed by the high pressure of deep water. A rocket resisting deeper water would be too heavy.

There is no engine driving the rocket under water, if the water is deeper, the rocket would lose too much speed in the water.

There are cruise missiles with wings launched horizontally, but they are not useful for orbital flight, especially those cruise missiles equipped with an air breathing turbo jet.

Uwe
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    Vertical may be better but rockets certainly can launch horizontally underwater from submarines: 1, 2, 3 I don't know if there are any torpedo-tube-to-space rockets, but it may be possible! – uhoh Jan 18 '21 at 03:09
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    These certainly looks vertical! Shitl: https://www.spacelaunchreport.com/shtil.html Volna: https://twitter.com/capt_navy/status/1043016630903533568 – uhoh Jan 18 '21 at 03:17
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    @uhoh Your examples 1 to 3 are cruise missiles with wings that are flying horizontally. Not useful for an orbital launch. They may be driven by a rocket engine or a jet engine. The engine of a cruise missile is working during the whole flight. The engine of a vertical launched rocket is burning only for short time after launch. Cruise missiles are flying at constant speed without acceleration after start. Rockets are accelerating during as long as the engine burns. – Uwe Jan 18 '21 at 09:55
  • Both Volna and Shtil are based on R-29 Vysota, which is 13 metre high. Are the submarines really that large in width (or depth) to fit such a big rocket in vertical position? Because it needs to be at least 15 m width – Joe Jobs Jan 18 '21 at 10:57
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    @JoeJobs, the size of the vertically launched missiles largely defines the needed size of a ballistic missile submarine, though they do cheat a bit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag-reducing_aerospike – GremlinWranger Jan 18 '21 at 11:18
  • @JoeJobs yes, they are that big. Soviet/Russian Delta class SSBNs have a massive box like structure behind the sail to make extra space for the rockets. This greatly increases drag and noise signatures, but the alternative would have been to make the entire submarine massively larger. The Chinese use a similar design. US and allies tend to go for smaller rockets instead. – jwenting Jan 18 '21 at 12:32
  • @uhoh to put more information to the things, submarine launched Harpoon uses a small solid rocket motor to boost a regular turbojet driven Harpoon missile to the speed it would normally get when being launched from an aircraft. Regulus too used a turbojet engine with solid rocket boosters to get it off the launch ramp. – jwenting Jan 18 '21 at 12:53
  • @Uwe "Not useful for an orbital launch." Suboptimal I'll agree, but absolutely Not useful is an eduated opinion, not necessarily a certainty. – uhoh Jan 18 '21 at 12:53
  • @jwenting sweet! I hope I'm never on the wrong end of either one! – uhoh Jan 18 '21 at 12:54
  • @uhoh On the 3 links the launches are not horizontal. The Exocet on the video clearly starts vertical or very close to (and only after it's out of the water changes direction to take an horizontal trajectory because it's an anti-ship missile). The other two seem to launch at an angle. – jcaron Jan 18 '21 at 14:45
  • @jcaron the torpedo tube looks pretty horizontal to me; if its powered motion is not called "launching" until it maneuvers into a more vertical orientation then okay but what should we call it? "propulsively powered prelaunch rapid motion"? I can go for that. – uhoh Jan 18 '21 at 16:46
  • @jcaron I'm just saying that the answer says without citing sources that it has to be vertical because... rockets can't launch horizontal, and I'm saying that I'm not so sure that that is an open-and-shut case. I'm not convinced of its impossibility. I think my links to those ICBM's address the question head-on and would be helpful. – uhoh Jan 18 '21 at 16:56
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    I am reminded of the line from the movie Hunt for Red October: "Can you launch an ICBM horizontally? Sure, but why would you want to?" – DKNguyen Jan 18 '21 at 17:07
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    @DKNguyen Depending on exactly what you consider the 'launch' moment to be, the answer to that rhetorical question might be, "Because you're the US Air Force, you have a really big C-5 and a Minuteman, and you want to use the capability as leverage in the SALT negotiations." Or, alternatively, "Because it looks awesome." – reirab Jan 18 '21 at 21:24
  • There are no rockets that ignite before getting out of the water? All of them ignite after that without exception? – Joe Jobs Jan 19 '21 at 14:25
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    @JoeJobs The nozzles are designed for air, so I'd assume almost certainly yes. You can do torpedo-launched rockets, though, where it uses a torpedo to accelerate initially, then the torpedo surfaces and launches the rocket. – reirab Jan 19 '21 at 19:59
  • @JoeJobs Yes the submarines for ICBM rocket are that big. Have a look at Typhoon number 8 of the image are the rocket silos. The yellow part of the boat is filled with air at atmospheric pressure, the blue part is open to the huge water pressure. The diameter of the boat pressure hull is much smaller than the length of the rockets. – Uwe Jan 20 '21 at 02:18
2

Are the rockets launched from submarines in a horizontal or vertical position?

I mean for the space launches like Volna and Shtil.

The Volna is "a converted Submarine-launched ballistic missile used for launching satellites into orbit." So is the Shtil.

Submarine-launched ballistic missiles launch vertically, as shown in this Wikipedia image:

enter image description here

RonJohn
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