Shallow Water Combat Submersible vs Vanguard-class submarine

FORCETALLY

Loading the evidence…

Preparing your view.

Shallow Water Combat Submersible — licensed reference photograph

ASubmarines

Shallow Water Combat Submersible

Submersible , diver propulsion vehicle

Credit

CAPT Kate Dollof · Public domain · Resized · Public domain · Source ↗ · Modified

Vanguard-class submarine — licensed reference photograph

BSubmarines

Vanguard-class submarine

Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine

Credit

CPOA(Phot) Tam McDonald · OGL v1.0 · Resized · OGL v1.0 · Source ↗ · Modified

First system

Second system

At a glance

Side by side

Length comparisonOne shared metre scale

Shallow Water Combat SubmersibleLength

6.8 m

Length source ↗

Vanguard-class submarineLength

149.9 m

Length source ↗

Lengths retain their source configuration and measurement scope.

Shallow Water Combat Submersiblelarger figure on 0 of 2

None

Vanguard-class submarinelarger figure on 2 of 2

Length+2104%
Beam+753%

Counts only measures both sources give with the same scope. A larger figure is not a better system.

Measured figures

Head to head

15 of 27 rows sourced on both sides

6.8m

150m

Length+2104%

All recorded figures & sources

6.8 m

Length

Single source

6.8 meters (22 ft)^[source]

149.9 m

Length

Single source

Configuration

Details

Shallow Water Combat Submersible and Vanguard-class submarine configuration
Specification	Shallow Water Combat Submersible	Vanguard-class submarine
Range	—	Limited only by food and mechanical components^[source]
Power	—	1 × Rolls-Royce PWR2 nuclear reactor , 2 × GEC turbines; 27,500 shp (20.5 MW) 1 × shaft, pump jet propulsor 2 × auxiliary retractable propulsion motors 2 × Allen turbo generators (6 MW) 2 × Paxman diesel alternators; 2,700 shp (2.0 MW)^[source]
Builders	Teledyne Brown Engineering^[source]	Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering , Barrow-in-Furness , England^[source]
Operators	United States Navy Royal Navy (planned)^[source]	Royal Navy^[source]

Preceded by	SEAL Delivery Vehicle^[source]	Resolution class^[source]

Cost	$383 million (program cost)^[source]	£ 12.15 billion (1995) (equivalent to £ 23.83 billion in 2024) for 4 units £ 3.04 billion (1995) (equivalent to £ 5.96 billion in 2024) per unit^[source]

On order	7 USN, 3 RN^[source]	—

Building	2^[source]	—

Completed	2^[source]	4^[source]

Type	Submersible , diver propulsion vehicle^[source]	Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine^[source]

Propulsion	Lithium-ion batteries powering electric motors^[source]	—

Test depth	>190 feet (58 m)^[source]	—

Sensors & processing systems	Inertial navigation system , high-frequency sonar for obstacle/mine avoidance and navigation, GPS^[source]	BAE Systems SMCS Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 I-band navigation radar Thales Underwater Systems Type 2054 composite sonar suite comprising: Marconi / Ferranti Type 2046 towed array sonar Type 2043 hull-mounted active and passive search sonar Type 2082 passive intercept and ranging sonar Pilkington Optronics CK51 search periscope Pilkington Optronics CH91 attack periscope^[source]

Armament	SEAL team personal weapons, limpet mines^[source]	4 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes for: Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes 16 × ballistic missile tubes for: Lockheed Trident II D5 SLBMs with up to 12 MIRVed Holbrook Mk-4A (100 kt TNT ) nuclear warheads each^[source]