StrategyPage:
For nearly a century, submarine design has dictated that the control room be right below where the periscope is. That's because the periscope was an optical device, where the user in the sub was looking at what a system of mirrors in the periscope tube showed was outside."
That changes with the new Virginia class U.S. Navy boats, which will be the first subs built without an optical periscope. Instead, the periscope mast contains video, still and infrared cameras that provide digital images in color, and black and white.
Since the images are digital, the periscope mast does not have to pierce the hull (cutting construction costs a wee bit) and the control room can be anywhere in the sub.
