Skipjack class

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Skipjack class
The USS Skipjack
The USS Skipjack
Ship data
country United StatesUnited States (national flag) United States
Ship type Nuclear submarine
Construction period 1956 to 1961
Launch of the type ship May 26, 1958
Units built 6th
period of service 1959 to 1990
Ship dimensions and crew
length
76.8 m ( Lüa )
width 9.4 m
Draft Max. 8.5 m
displacement surfaced: 3,075 tn.l.
submerged: 3,513 tn.l.
 
crew 93 men
Machine system
machine S5W reactor
Machine
performance
15,000 PS (11,032 kW)
propeller 1
Mission data submarine
Diving depth, normal 210 m
Immersion depth, max. 300 m
Top
speed
submerged
33 kn (61 km / h)
Top
speed
surfaced
15 kn (28 km / h)
Armament

The Skipjack- class was a class of nuclear submarines in the United States Navy . The six boats of the class, put into service from 1959, were in service until 1990.

The third boat of the class, the USS Scorpion , which sank on May 22, 1968 with 99 sailors on board, was best known .

history

Planning and construction

Launching of the Scorpion

The Skipjack- class boats were planned from the mid-1950s and built according to a radically different design than any other submarine of the time. Both the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus , as well as the successor USS Seawolf , and the four boats of the Skate class still had classic two-hulled hulls , as they were used in World War II boats. However, the Skipjack class received a hull like the one that was tried out on the test submarine USS Albacore . This was hydrodynamically more favorable because it resembled a drop of water in shape. The Skipjack class was the first nuclear submarine class and, after the Barbel class, the second class in this form.

Around one and a half years after the Albacore went into service , the first boat in the Skipjack class was ordered in May 1955, and five more orders followed in 1957. In 1956 the first unit was laid down. Another was to follow in 1957 when the Navy delayed the Skipjack program. The hull of the second unit, which had already begun, became the world's first nuclear-powered missile submarine , the USS George Washington , by adding a missile section , and material that was actually intended for another Skipjack was also used for the expansion of the George Washington class used. The remaining five boats of the Skipjack class were therefore only laid down in 1958 and 1959. Two each of the boats were built at Electric Boat and Ingalls Shipbuilding , the other two at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and Newport News Shipbuilding . The construction costs per boat were around 40 million US dollars.

The name of the class is traditionally derived from the first boat. This as well as the following were named after marine animals, as was still common at the time. Skipjack is the English name for a type of tuna, the bonito .

period of service

The first boat was added to the fleet in 1959, the next due to the preference of the rocket submarines at the expense of the Skipjack class in 1960, the remaining four not until 1961. Even before the last Skipjack was put into service in October, the first boat of the successor Class, the further improved Thresher class in service. Together with the planned 14 boats of this class, the Skipjack class was to provide the most modern part of the US nuclear submarine fleet, but this was delayed in 1963 by the sinking of the USS Thresher , since in the SUBSAFE program that then started all U- Boats checked and new boats put into service with a delay. All boats of the Thresher class were not in service until 1968, when the commissioning of the successor, the Sturgeon class , had already started.

A Skipjack- class boat also sank. On May 22, 1968, the Scorpion was on its way back from a mission in the Mediterranean when suddenly the regular position reports failed to appear. It was only at the end of the year that the wreck of the boat was found 3,300 meters below the surface of the water at the bottom of the Atlantic about 400  nautical miles southwest of the Azores . The reason could never be clearly clarified, today researchers assume that a torpedo detonated after a malfunction inside the submarine. The 99 dead mark the most recent sinking of a US Navy submarine.

The remaining five submarines formed the oldest part of the US fleet until the end of the Cold War. In 1986 the first boat went out of service, the other four were deactivated until 1990, the geopolitical changes and their advanced age of around 40 made them dispensable compared to the new Los Angeles class boats .

technology

hull

Schematic representation of a submarine of the Skipjack class:
1: Sonar system
2: Torpedo
room 3: Operations center
4: Reactor department
5: Auxiliary
engine room 6: Engine room

The boats of the Skipjack class were the first submarines whose hulls were manufactured in a hydrodynamically optimized teardrop shape, i.e. implemented the so-called Albacore hull. This shape has basically been retained to this day, but modified in the direction of the cylinder, which is hydrodynamically less favorable, but easier to manufacture. The boats were single-hulled boats .

With a length of 76 meters, the boats are the smallest nuclear submarines that the US Navy has ever operated. The width was 9.4 meters, the draft was around 8.5 meters. The submerged displacement was around 3,500  tons .

The hull of the boats was first made of highly elastic HY-80 steel having a guaranteed yield strength ( yield strength ) of 80,000 psi ( pounds per square inch has). This is the limit of materials up to which no permanent deformation occurs. This corresponds to approx. 552  N / mm² . Another advantage of this steel, which is mainly used for shipbuilding, is its good weldability. The permitted diving depth was around 300 meters, the structural integrity of the hull was guaranteed up to around 600 meters.

For the first time, the forward downruds were attached to the tower instead of the hull itself in order to reduce the flow noise near the bow sonar.

drive

View of the Sculpin

For the first time among the US nuclear submarines, the drive in the Skipjack class consisted of just one shaft instead of two as before. An S5W pressurized water reactor was used as the reactor . This abbreviation denotes: S for submarine, 5 for the fifth generation of nuclear reactors, W for the manufacturer, Westinghouse Electric Corporation . The power of this reactor, used for all subsequent submarine classes up to the Los Angeles class, was around 15,000 hp. This enabled the submarines to reach underwater speeds of up to 30 knots. This top speed of submarines, which was achieved not least because of the new hull shape, was bought at the price of the relatively low surface speed, which was just half the top speed.

Armament

The armament of the Skipjack boats consisted of six torpedo tubes 53.3 cm in diameter, all of which were directed forward. Each of the boats carried 24 torpedoes. The types Mark 37 and Mark 45 ASTOR with nuclear warheads were possible .

Web links

Commons : Skipjack class  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Seemacht USA , Bechtermünz-Verlag, ISBN 3-86047-576-2 , page 520
  2. ^ Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew: Hunt under water. The real story of submarine espionage. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-570-00425-2 , pages 164 and 172