Skate class
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| Class details |
|
|---|---|
| Submarine type: | Hunting submarine |
| Number of units: | 4 built, 0 in service |
| Period of service: | 1957 to 1989 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Length: | 81.5 m |
| Width: | 7.6 m |
| Draft: | 6.5 meters |
| Displacement: | 2850 ts submerged |
| Drive: | A pressurized water reactor |
| Speed: | 18 knots surfaced, 22 kn submerged |
| Crew: | 87 |
| Armament: | four 533 mm torpedo tubes in the bow, 2 533 mm torpedo tubes in the stern |
The skate class was the first series production of nuclear submarines for the United States Navy . The class consisted of four boats, all of which were decommissioned in the 1980s.
history
The first unit of the class was laid down on July 21, 1955 by General Dynamics Corporation's Electric Boat Co. Division in Groton, California, the last unit on June 20, 1956. The first three units each took around two and a half years to go into service , with the fourth one year longer. The shipyard was the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for two units and Electric Boat and the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for one submarine each.
The class was, after the prototypes USS Nautilus (SSN-571) and USS Seawolf (SSN-575), the first class of serial production. The four boats remained in service from the late 1950s to the 1980s.
technology
The skate class boats were around 81.5 meters long and 7.6 meters wide. Submerged, their displacement was 2850 ts . The fuselage was still made in the historical design as it was used in World War II , not in the hydrodynamically optimized teardrop shape, as it was introduced in later classes.
The first two units of the class received a pressurized water reactor of the type S3W , the last two an S4W . However, over the years all reactors have been upgraded to the more modern type S5W . The S stands for the genus, here submarine , the number indicates the reactor generation, the W marks the manufacturer, in this case the Westinghouse Electric Corporation . The reactor propelled two shafts that could accelerate the boat up to 22 knots when submerged.
The armament consisted of four 533 millimeter torpedo tubes in the bow and two rearward-facing ones in the stern.
Web links
- Skate class on globalsecurity.org (English)
