Realised that most modern submarines (and some aircraft carriers) use nuclear power, but destroyers and frigates don’t. I don’t imagine it’s a size thing, so I’m not sure what else it could be.
In: Engineering
two main reasons it’s more common than on surface ships (the us has a number of nuclear powered aircraft carriers and there are a handful of other nuclear powered ships out there)
you can’t fuel a submarine with a combustion power source unless it is surfaced or snorkeling. this makes them much easier to detect, and staying undetected is the main reason submarines exist. a conventional submarine has to use batteries while fully submerged, which last a much shorter time between being able to be detected. as such an enemy can always be at least aware in what region a submarine is since the range without surfacing is limited.
the second reason is just performance. a nuclear powered submarine is much faster while underwater because it has massive power reserves and it can also use that power for more advanced sensors like powerful sonar and things like powerful lasers and underwater oxygen generation through electrolysis.
overall a nuclear submarine is just much faster while submerged, can take on much longer distance and duration missions, can do so fully submerged to keep undetected and can have more energy intensive equipment on board
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