USS Gato (SSN-615)
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| period of service |
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | July 9, 1960 |
| Keel laying: | December 15, 1961 |
| Launch: | May 14, 1964 |
| Commissioning: | January 25, 1968 |
| Decommissioning: | April 25, 1996 |
| Status: | Canceled |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | 4,600 tons submerged |
| Length: | 89.1 meters |
| Width: | 9.8 meters |
| Draft: | 8.8 meters |
| Drive: | A S5W pressurized water reactor |
| Crew: | 12 officers, 115 sailors |
| Motto: | The goalkeeper |
The USS Gato (SSN-615) was a nuclear-powered submarine of the Thresher / Permit class .
history
In 1960 the contract to build the Gato was awarded. At the end of 1961 the keel of the boat was laid at Electric Boat . Since the lead ship of the class, the USS Thresher (SSN-593) , was lost during test drives while the Gato was being built, the SUBSAFE program decided to change the design, which is why construction took three and a half years between the launch in 1964 and commissioning 1968 lay another three and a half years. The boat is named after a dogfish that lives off the west coast of Mexico.
The Gato was involved in a serious incident on November 15, 1969, shortly after its commissioning. The boat operated at a depth of approximately 200 feet / 60 meters in the Barents Sea , a few miles from the mouth of the White Sea . The ship crashed violently with a Soviet submarine. The K-19 , a hotel-class boat , hit the Gato right where the reactor was. While the American submarine did not suffer too much damage, the K-19 had to show up. The incident wasn't made public until July 6, 1975 by the New York Times .
On April 25, 1996, the Gato was decommissioned and canceled in the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard .
