Submarine tenders at sea needed option

[colt6900]

I have not found any option for using submarine tenders to refuel and resupply subs at sea, I know Germany used
tenders in this way in the Atlantic, I believe the Japanese did as well but I'm not sure of the details.
It would be a nice feature to allow us to use submarine tenders at sea to refuel and resupply for long-range
missions as an option.

[BBfanboy]

I don't know about the feasibility of transferring torpedoes at sea - the German Milch Cows provided fuel and food and spare parts.

I have certainly found it frustrating that subs at sea or even undocked in a smaller port cannot refuel. I am pretty sure buddy fuelling was an option for subs. Heck, for all the diesel they use, drummed fuel could be hand pumped into their tanks if the sea was calm enough. And I am sure sailors could rig up a garden hose to run from a tanker with a small pump. (Although the tanker might not have diesel fuel aboard so an AO would be a reasonable restriction).

[Bullwinkle58]

This is an interesting topic, but it doesn't belong here.

There are many resources on-line that discuss submarine refueling. The short answer for the USN was didn't and didn't need to.

[rustysi]

I don't know about the feasibility of transferring torpedoes at sea - the German Milch Cows provided fuel and food and spare parts.

They did in fact transfer torps as well. I've seen the videos, didn't look like fun, but it was done.

[Denniss]

They also had some modified merchant ships for this task but most of them were caught by 42-43. Some raiders were also misused for this task on occasion and at least one was caught while doing so due to breaking the radio code used by subs.

[NigelKentarus]

Having been stationed on a sub tender from '83-'85 (USS McKee AS-41), we never replenished a sub while underway. I was leading Petty Officer of 2nd Div. (cranes) and there would be just too much rocking and rolling to be able to have a sub tie up alongside and be able to slue the cranes over the side with a load on. However we did anchor out and replenish some subs a few times.