USS Tullibee (SSN-597)
_underway_at_sea,_circa_in_1960.jpg) The Tullibee on the surface of the water |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | November 15, 1957 |
| Keel laying | May 26, 1958 |
| Launch | April 27, 1960 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | November 9, 1960 |
| Decommissioning | June 25, 1988 |
| Whereabouts | Disassembled |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
2640 tons submerged |
| length |
82.3 m |
| width |
7.1 m |
| Draft |
6.4 m |
| crew |
6 officers, 60 men |
| drive |
An S2C nuclear reactor, turbo-electric drive, 2400 shaft horsepower |
| speed |
20 knots |
| Armament |
4 533 mm torpedo tubes |
The USS TULLIBEE (SSN-597) was a nuclear-powered submarine of the United States Navy . It entered service in 1960 and ran until 1988. The main objective in its development was to create a small, inexpensive submarine intended primarily for anti-submarine missions. For this, a large spherical sonar was used in the bow for the first time and a turbo-electric drive should make the boat quiet. Most of the time, the Tullibee was used with her other boats, superior sonar, to develop new tactics for submarine hunting.
history
planning
Around 1955 the Navy determined that the boats of the planned Skipjack class had become much more expensive than the first generation around the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) and the Skate class . In addition, the Nautilus turned out to be very loud in initial tests.
To counteract this, the Navy's Ship Characteristics Board suggested developing smaller and cheaper boats, while at the same time placing more emphasis on avoiding noise. From this the Tullibee developed , which was planned as the successor to the killer submarines of the Barracuda class . Their lead ship, the conventionally powered USS Barracuda (SSK-1) , went into service in 1951. The boats were designed with passive sonar and the greatest possible maneuverability, especially for hunting other submarines . Admiral Arleigh Burke supported the construction of a nuclear powered prototype of such a submarine, and in 1955 the Bureau of Ships submitted to the Navy a draft for a nuclear powered SSKN ( ship submersible, killer, nuclear ) and a draft for five conventional killer submarines ( SSK ). That same year, the Navy chose the SSKN design and began working on the design in 1956.
It quickly became clear, however, that the Navy had to give up the plan for a small submarine with a displacement of just over 1000 tons (ts) because the nuclear reactor was much heavier and more buoyancy was included in the construction plans than in the original design intended. In the end, the displacement doubled to 2600 ts. Nevertheless, the Navy decided to build the Tullibee as a prototype, but gave up the classification as a killer submarine; instead, it was classified as a normal hunting submarine ( SSN ). The main novelties of the design were the sonar system, which had a large spherical sonar in the bow, and the drive system, which dispensed with geared turbines and provided a turbo-electric construction to reduce noise.
construction
On November 15, 1957, construction of SSN-597 was approved. Half a year later, on May 26, 1958, Electric Boat laid the keel of the boat in Groton , Connecticut . After less than two years, the launch and christening of the ship took place on April 27, 1960. Tullibee's godmother was the widow of Charles F. Brindupke, who died as commander of the USS Tullibee (SS-284) in World War II when his boat was sunk by its own torpedo that had run in a circle . After the final equipment, SSN-597 entered service on November 9, 1960. It was stationed at Naval Submarine Base New London and was assigned to Submarine Development Group Two as the first nuclear submarine to develop new submarine tactics. Accordingly, the Tullibee was used in sonar exercises right from the start, in which the novel arrangement of the sonar devices was tested and tactics for using the sonar were developed. These took place off the US east coast and in the Caribbean, where the Navy had selected special sea areas for sonar exercises.
Mission history
From 1964 the Tullibee took part in sonar exercises together with NATO forces and in 1965 mainly test drives were on the program. At the end of the year she was docked and overhauled in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine . It was not until 1968 that the submarine was used again to develop sonar techniques. In 1970 the Tullibee moved over a longer distance for the first time. She was sent to the area of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, where she took part in exercises and made port visits in Athens , Naples and Rota . During the journey, which lasted around five months, the submarine covered 20,000 nautical miles. The years from 1971 to 1974 the Tullibee again spent with NATO and US exercises in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. In 1972 the submarine collided with the German freighter Hagen 150 nautical miles off Cape Hatteras , North Carolina . The Tullibee was too close under the water surface in stormy seas when the ships touched. There was only slight damage, both ships were able to continue on their own. In 1973 Tullibee went back to Portsmouth NSY for a scheduled overhaul.
In 1975 the second trip into the Mediterranean followed and the third at the turn of the year 1976/1977. On June 16, 1978, the propeller shaft broke during the fourth Mediterranean laying. This opened the engine room to the sea and partially flooded it. However, the flooding could be stopped, the Tullibee appeared and was towed to Rota. There she was in the shipyard for two months. After returning and doing some local operations in 1978/1979, she was docked in Portsmouth for the third overhaul in August 1979, which lasted until 1982. This was followed by trips off the east coast and in the Caribbean and in 1985/1986 the fifth and final transfer to the Mediterranean.
In the following years, the inactivation of the submarine began at the pier. The Tullibee did not leave New London until September 1987 when she was towed into the Portsmouth NSY. It was officially decommissioned on June 25, 1988. In the shipyard non-nuclear parts were removed and the complete dismantling took place from 1995 in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as part of the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program . This was completed on April 1, 1996.
technology
Hull and drive
_underway_during_sea_trials,_circa_in_October_1960_(USN_1051125_).jpg)
The hull of the Tullibee was 82.3 meters long and 7.1 meters wide, the draft was 6.4 meters. The submerged displacement was around 2,640 tons . The small tower was in the front third. The shape of the hull was no longer purely teardrop-shaped, as it had been determined to be hydrodynamically optimal in the test submarine USS Albacore (AGSS-569) . Instead, the area behind the tower was built as a fixed-diameter tube. Only towards the stern did the fuselage narrow again. While this meant a departure from optimal hydrodynamics, it was easier to build and made the submarine longer. The down rudders were attached to the tower.
The hull was made of so-called HT steel ( high tensile steel) , unlike other submarines of the time, made of HY-80 steel. Therefore, the permitted diving depth was only around 210 meters, in contrast to the around 400 meters of the Thresher class . The boat had two deck levels inside. The reactor was located amidships, where it was easier to balance due to its heavy weight. The entire aft space was taken up by the engine rooms. In front of the reactor there were lounge, work and dormitories for the crew, and under the tower the operations center from which the boat was controlled. The bow was taken in by the torpedo room and sonar.
The drive consisted of an S2C nuclear reactor manufactured by Combustion Engineering . As requested by Arleigh Burke , the Tullibee received a turbo-electric drive. The reactor was used to charge batteries, which in turn drove an electric motor. This made around 2400 hp on the single wave. The submerged boat thus reached between 16 and 20 knots, around 10 knots less than other submarines of the time. However, since there was no need for complicated and usually noisy geared turbines and the reactor could also be shut down far, this system was significantly quieter than other types of drive. In addition, the boat was able to accelerate faster, as the reactor power did not have to be increased first. Ultimately, a turbo-electric drive was only used once in a US Navy submarine for combat missions, namely from 1971 on the USS Glenard P. Lipscomb (SSN-685) . The Navy also installed such a system in the research submarine NR-1 .
Armament and Electronics
The biggest novelty was the spherical sonar system that took up the entire bow area. The Tullibee received the AN / AQQ-1, which consisted of an active spherical sonar BQS-6 and the passive low-frequency sensors BQR-7 arranged around it. The bow had the advantage that it was as far away as possible from its own propulsion systems, which minimized intrinsic disturbances. For the first time, Tullibee was able to locate sonar contacts in all three dimensions. All later submarines of the US Navy received such a ball sonar. The Tullibee had four BQG-2A-PUFFS sensors for fire control . One each was located as a clearly visible "fin" externally at the bow and one at the stern, and another internally in the tower and in the rear stabilizer fin.
Since the sonar occupied the bow, in which the torpedo tubes were housed in earlier designs, the Navy had to find a new solution for the armament. The four 533 mm tubes were pushed further back and angled 10 ° from the longitudinal axis of the boat. Two spare rounds could be carried for each barrel, so that the Tullibee had up to twelve Mk. 48 weapons on board.
crew
The crew size should also make the design cheap and save operating costs. With 56 men on board the Tullibee , 32 men fewer were planned than initially planned for the Thresher class ; In the end, around 100 men were deployed on the Theshers . However, since the sea crew of 56 men was not enough to carry out the necessary maintenance work in the port on their own, the Tullibee had to be assigned more men who did not go out to sea, but carried out administrative activities and prepared port idle times during the voyages in the port.
Web links
- Tullibee the Naval Vessel Register (Engl.)
- Pictures of the Tullibee at navsource.org (engl.)
Individual evidence
- ^ Norman Friedman: US Submarines since 1945. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1994, ISBN 978-1-55750-260-5 . P. 133ff
- ↑ History of the USS Tullibee (SSN-597) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- ^ A b c Norman Polmar, KJ Moore: Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of US and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001. Potomac Books, Dulles, VA 2003. ISBN 978-1-57488-594-1 . P. 153
- ↑ Friedman (1994), p. 138
