Japan’s Sōryū-class diesel-electric attack submarines, commissioned from 2009, form the current backbone of the JMSDF’s ...

Known as anechoic tiles, many modern classes of submarine are coated almost all over the hull by thousands of these rubber-like patches. Their purpose is twofold: first of all they dampen sounds ...

British and Russian submarines also have appeared in photos with missing anechoic tiles. Some Russian submarines have titanium hulls, which seem to make the tile problem even worse. Russian Sierra ...

Submarines are typically fitted with stealth coatings, or anechoic tiles, which are designed to absorb sound waves, making them less vulnerable to attacks and harder for enemy ships to track.

Where older submarines have brick-like, sound-absorbing anechoic tiles, Virginia-class subs feature a coating that shipyard workers apply in large sections. “It creates a smoother surface and ...

One way U.S. Navy submarines evade detection is by lowering their noise profile. So-called anechoic coatings consist of rubber tiles that are affixed to the hull with glue, coating as much of it ...

The material is likened to the stealth coating on fighter jets and bombers that absorb radar's electromagnetic waves; the anechoic tiles on submarines absorb sound waves from sonar. They help to ...

Anechoic tiles are rubber or synthetic polymer tiles, which help absorb the sound waves of active sonar as well as the lower sounds emitted from the submarine itself. According to submarine expert ...

The anechoic tiles also shield sounds from within the submarine thus reducing the range of detection by passive sonar. The improved Kilo is 73.8 meters (242 ft.) in length, 9.9 meters (32.4 ft.) ...

The U.S. Navy currently covers its submarines with anechoic coatings, rubber or polymer tiles that are affixed to hulls with glue and are designed to reduce detection at certain sonar frequency bands.