submarine

n. /sub'meuh reen", sub"meuh reen'/; adj., v. /sub'meuh reen"/, n., adj., v., submarined, submarining.

n.

1. a vessel that can be submerged and navigated under water, usually built for warfare and armed with torpedoes or guided missiles.

2. something situated or living under the surface of the sea, as a plant or animal.

3. Chiefly Northeastern and North Midland U.S. a hero sandwich.

adj.

4. situated, occurring, operating, or living under the surface of the sea: a submarine mountain.

5. of, pertaining to, or carried on by a submarine or submarines: submarine warfare.

v.i.

6. to participate in the operating of a submarine.

7. to move or slide under something.

8. Slang.

a. to be thrown under the steering wheel of the vehicle one is driving during a frontal crash.

b. to be thrown out of one's seat belt in such a crash.

v.t.

9. to attack or sink by submarine.

[1640-50; 1895-1900 for def. 1; SUB- + MARINE]

Regional Variation. 3. See hero sandwich.

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I

Naval vessel capable of operating underwater for sustained periods.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, American inventors such as David Bushnell (1742?–1824) and Robert Fulton experimented with hand-powered submarines. In 1898 John P. Holland (1840–1914) launched the Holland, which had both a gasoline engine for surface locomotion and a battery-powered electric motor for submerged cruising; it was purchased by the U.S. government in 1900. The innovations of Simon Lake (1866–1945) were adopted first in Europe and later in the U.S. By the eve of World War I, all major navies had diesel-electric submarines. German U-boats were an especially potent threat; through World War II they introduced such innovations as the snorkel, which supplied fresh air to the diesel engine without having to surface the boat. Nuclear-powered submarines began service with the launching of the USS Nautilus in 1954. The abundant power provided by uranium-fueled reactors means that nuclear submarines can remain submerged and operate at high speed indefinitely. Only the navies of the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, and China have nuclear-powered submarines; other navies rely on conventional diesel-electric power. Subs may be armed with torpedoes, cruise missiles, or ballistic missiles fitted with nuclear warheads. Because they are so difficult to locate, they are of great importance in the forces of almost all maritime states. See also depth charge; sonar; Trident missile.

II

(as used in expressions)

submarine plateau

submarine canyon

submarine fan

submarine fracture zone

submarine mine

submarine slump

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▪ ship

Introduction

      any naval vessel that is capable of propelling itself beneath the water as well as on the water's surface. This is a unique capability among warships, and submarines are quite different in design and appearance from surface ships.

      Submarines first became a major factor in naval warfare during World War I (1914–18), when Germany employed them to destroy surface merchant vessels. In such attacks submarines used their primary weapon, a self-propelled underwater missile known as a torpedo. Submarines played a similar role on a larger scale in World War II (1939–45), in both the Atlantic (by Germany) and the Pacific (by the United States). In the 1960s the nuclear-powered submarine, capable of remaining underwater for months at a time and of firing long-range nuclear missiles without surfacing, became an important strategic weapon platform. Armed with torpedoes as well as antiship and antisubmarine missiles, the nuclear attack submarine has also become a key element of naval warfare.

      Following is a history of the development of submarines from the 17th century to the present. For a history of other warships, see naval ship. For the weaponry of modern attack and strategic submarines, see rocket and missile system.

Early hand-powered submersibles

      The first serious discussion of a “submarine”—a craft designed to be navigated underwater—appeared in 1578 from the pen of William Bourne, a British mathematician and writer on naval subjects. Bourne proposed a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed underwater. It consisted of a wooden frame covered with waterproof leather; it was to be submerged by reducing its volume by contracting the sides through the use of hand vises. Bourne did not actually construct his boat, and Cornelis Drebbel (or Cornelius van Drebel (Drebbel, Cornelis)), a Dutch inventor, is usually credited with building the first submarine. Between 1620 and 1624 he successfully maneuvered his craft at depths of from 12 to 15 feet (four to five metres) beneath the surface during repeated trials in the Thames River, in England. King James I is said to have gone aboard the craft for a short ride. Drebbel's submarine resembled that proposed by Bourne in that its outer hull consisted of greased leather over a wooden frame; oars extended through the sides and, sealed with tight-fitting leather flaps, provided a means of propulsion both on the surface and underwater. Drebbel's first craft was followed by two larger ones built on the same principle.

      A number of submarine boats were conceived in the early years of the 18th century. By 1727 no fewer than 14 types had been patented in England alone. In 1747 an unidentified inventor proposed an ingenious method of submerging and returning to the surface: his submarine design had goatskin bags attached to the hull with each skin connected to an aperture in the bottom of the craft. He planned to submerge the vessel by filling the skins with water and to surface by forcing the water out of the skins with a “twisting rod.” This arrangement was a forerunner of the modern submarine ballast tank.

First use in war

 The submarine was first used as an offensive weapon in naval warfare during the American Revolution (1775–83). The Turtle, a one-man craft invented by David Bushnell (Bushnell, David), a student at Yale, was built of wood in the shape of a walnut standing on end (see photograph—>). Submerged, the craft was powered by propellers cranked by the operator. The plan was to have the Turtle make an underwater approach to a British warship, attach a charge of gunpowder to the ship's hull by a screw device operated from within the craft, and leave before the charge was exploded by a time fuse. In the actual attack, however, the Turtle was unable to force the screw through the copper sheathing on the warship's hull.

      Robert Fulton (Fulton, Robert), famed U.S. inventor and artist, experimented with submarines several years before his steamboat Clermont steamed up the Hudson River. In 1800, while in France, Fulton built the submarine Nautilus under a grant from Napoleon Bonaparte. Completed in May 1801, this craft was made of copper sheets over iron ribs. A collapsing mast and sail were provided for surface propulsion, and a hand-turned propeller drove the boat when submerged. A precursor of a conning tower fitted with a glass-covered porthole permitted observation from within the craft. The Nautilus submerged by taking water into ballast tanks, and a horizontal “rudder”—a forerunner of the diving plane—helped keep the craft at the desired depth. The submarine contained enough air to keep four men alive and two candles burning for three hours underwater; later a tank of compressed air was added.

      The Nautilus was intended to attach an explosive charge to the hull of an enemy ship in much the same manner as the Turtle. Fulton experimentally sank an old schooner moored at Brest but, setting out to destroy British warships, was unable to overtake those he sighted. France's interest in Fulton's submarine waned, and he left for England, offering his invention to his former enemy. In 1805 the Nautilus sank the brig Dorothy in a test, but the Royal Navy would not back his efforts. Fulton then came to the United States and succeeded in obtaining congressional backing for a more ambitious undersea craft. This new submarine was to carry 100 men and be powered by a steam engine. Fulton died before the craft was actually finished, however, and the submarine, named Mute, was left to rot, eventually sinking at its moorings.

      During the War of 1812 between the United States and England, a copy of the Turtle was built, which attacked HMS Ramillies at anchor off New London, Conn. This time the craft's operator succeeded in boring a hole in the ship's copper sheathing, but the screw broke loose as the explosive was being attached to the ship's hull.

American Civil War and after

      The next U.S. attempt at submarine warfare came during the Civil War (1861–65) when the Confederate States resorted to “unconventional” methods to overcome the Union Navy's superior strength, exerted in a blockade of Southern ports. In 1862 Horace L. Hunley of Mobile, Ala., financed the building of a Confederate submarine named Pioneer, a craft that was 34 feet long and was driven by a hand-cranked propeller operated by three men. It probably was scuttled to prevent its capture when Union forces occupied New Orleans (although some records say the Pioneer was lost with all those aboard during a dive while en route to attack Union ships).

      The second submarine developed by the same builders was a remarkably advanced concept: a 25-foot iron boat intended to be propelled by a battery and electric motors. Not surprisingly, no suitable motors could be found, so a propeller cranked by four men was again adopted. The submarine sank without loss of life in heavy seas off Mobile Bay while seeking to attack the enemy.

      The third submarine of the Confederacy was the H.L. Hunley (Hunley), a modified iron boiler lengthened to between 36 and 40 feet. Ballast tanks and a system of weights submerged the craft; it could travel at a speed of four miles an hour, powered by eight men cranking its propeller. Its armament consisted of a “torpedo,” filled with 90 pounds (40 kilograms) of gunpowder, towed behind the submarine at the end of a 200-foot line. The Hunley was to dive under an enemy warship and drag the torpedo against its hull. After a successful test against a barge, the Hunley was moved by railroad to Charleston, S.C. There the vessel suffered several disasters, sinking three times and drowning a number of crewmen including Hunley himself. Manned for a fourth time, the Hunley was fitted with a “torpedo” on the end of a long spar, and the craft made several successful dives. On the night of Feb. 17, 1864, the submarine attacked the Union warship Housatonic in Charleston harbour. The torpedo's detonation exploded the warship's magazines: the Housatonic sank in shallow water with the loss of five men, but the Hunley was also destroyed by the explosion, and its crew was killed.

      One of the more intrepid submarine inventors of the same period was Wilhelm Bauer (Bauer, Sebastian Wilhelm Valentin), a noncommissioned officer of Bavarian artillery who built two boats, Le Plongeur-Marin (1851) and Le Diable-Marin (1855). The first boat sank in Kiel harbour on Feb. 1, 1851, but Bauer and his two assistants escaped from a depth of 60 feet after the craft had been on the bottom for five hours. His second craft, built for the Russian government, was successful and reportedly made 134 dives before being lost at sea. In September 1856, during the coronation of Tsar Alexander II, Bauer submerged his submarine in Kronshtadt harbour with several musicians on board. An underwater rendition of the Russian national anthem was clearly heard by persons inside ships in the harbour.

Toward diesel-electric power

      A major limitation of the early submarines was their lack of a suitable means of propulsion. In 1880 an English clergyman, George W. Garrett, successfully operated a submarine with steam from a coal-fired boiler that featured a retractable smokestack. The fire had to be extinguished before the craft would submerge (or it would exhaust the air in the submarine), but enough steam remained in the boilers for traveling several miles underwater.

      Similarly, the Swedish gun designer Torsten Nordenfelt constructed a steam-powered submarine driven by twin propellers. His craft could be submerged by vertical propellers to a depth of 50 feet and was fitted with one of the first practical torpedo tubes. Several nations built submarines to Nordenfelt's design.

      In an effort to overcome the problems of propulsion, two French naval officers built the 146-foot submarine Le Plongeur in 1864, powered by an 80-horsepower compressed-air engine, but the craft quickly exhausted its air tanks whenever it got under way. Development of the electric motor finally made electric propulsion practicable. The submarine Nautilus, built in 1886 by two Englishmen, was an all-electric craft. This Nautilus, propelled by two 50-horsepower electric motors operated from a 100-cell storage battery, achieved a surface speed of six knots (nautical miles per hour; one knot equals 1.15 statute miles per hour or 1.85 kilometres per hour). But the battery had to be recharged and overhauled at short intervals, and the craft was never able to travel more than 80 miles without a battery recharge. In France, Gustave Zédé launched the Gymnote in 1888; it, too, was propelled by an electric motor and was extremely maneuverable but tended to go out of control when it dived.

      The end of the 19th century was a period of intensive submarine development, and Zédé collaborated in a number of designs sponsored by the French navy. A most successful French undersea craft of the period was the Narval, designed by Maxime Laubeuf, a marine engineer in the navy. Launched in 1899, the Narval was a double-hulled craft, 111.5 feet long, propelled on the surface by a steam engine and by electric motors when submerged. The ballast tanks were located between the double hulls, a concept still in use today. The Narval made a large number of successful dives. Further French progress in submarines was marked by the four Sirène-class steam-driven undersea craft completed in 1900–01 and the Aigrette, completed in 1905, the first diesel-driven submarine of any navy.

      Similarly, there were submarine successes in the United States by rival inventors John P. Holland (Holland, John Philip) (an Irish immigrant) and Simon Lake (Lake, Simon). Holland launched his first under-sea craft in 1875. This one and its successors were significant in combining water ballast with horizontal rudders for diving. In 1895, in competition with Nordenfelt, Holland received an order from the U.S. Navy for a submarine. This was to be the Plunger, propelled by steam on the surface and by electricity when submerged. The craft underwent many design changes and finally was abandoned before completion. Holland returned the funds advanced by the navy and built his next submarine (his sixth) at his own expense. This was the Holland, a 53.25-foot craft launched in 1897 and accepted by the navy in 1900. For underwater propulsion the Holland had an electric motor, and it was propelled on the surface by a gasoline engine. The submarine's armament consisted of a bow torpedo tube, for which three torpedoes were carried, and two dynamite guns. With its nine-man crew the Holland was a successful boat; it was modified many times to test different arrangements of propellers, diving planes, rudders, and other equipment.

      Holland's chief competitor, Simon Lake, built his first submarine, the Argonaut I, in 1894; it was powered by a gasoline engine and electric motor. This and Lake's other early boats were intended as undersea research craft. In 1898 the Argonaut I sailed from Norfolk, Va., to New York City under its own power, predating the cruises of the French Narval and marking the first time an undersea craft operated extensively in the open sea. Lake's second submarine was the Protector, launched in 1901.

      Of the major naval powers at the turn of the century, only Britain remained indifferent toward submarines. Finally, in 1901, the Royal Navy ordered five of the Holland-design undersea craft. Germany completed its first submarine, the U-1 (for Unterseeboot 1), in 1905. This craft was 139 feet long, powered on the surface by a heavy oil engine and by an electric motor when submerged, and was armed with one torpedo tube. Thus, the stage was set for the 20th-century submarine, a craft propelled on the surface by diesel engines and underwater by battery-powered electric motors, submerging by diving planes and taking on water ballast, and armed with torpedoes for sinking enemy ships. The quarters inside these early craft were cramped, generally wet, and stank from diesel oil.

World War I

      By the eve of World War I all of the major navies included submarines in their fleets, but these craft were relatively small, were considered of questionable military value, and generally were intended for coastal operations. The most significant exception to the concept of coastal activity was the German Deutschland class of merchant U-boats (U-boat), each 315 feet long with two large cargo compartments. These submarines could carry 700 tons of cargo at 12- to 13-knot speeds on the surface and at seven knots submerged. The Deutschland itself became the U-155 when fitted with torpedo tubes and deck guns, and, with seven similar submarines, it served in a combat role during the latter stages of the war. In comparison, the “standard” submarine of World War I measured slightly over 200 feet in length and displaced less than 1,000 tons on the surface.

      The prewar submarines generally had been armed with self-propelled torpedoes for attacking enemy ships. During the war submarines also were fitted with deck guns. This permitted them to approach enemy merchant ships on the surface and signal them to stop for searching (an early war policy) and later to sink small or unarmed ships that did not warrant expenditure of torpedoes. Most war-built submarines had one and sometimes two guns of about three- or four-inch calibre; however, several later German submarines carried 150-millimetre guns (including the Deutschland class in military configuration).

      An important armament variation was the submarine modified to lay mines (mine) during covert missions off an enemy's harbours. The Germans constructed several specialized submarines with vertical mine tubes through their hulls; some U-boats carried 48 mines in addition to their torpedoes.

      Also noteworthy was the development, during the war, of the concept of an antisubmarine submarine. British submarines sank 17 German U-boats during the conflict; the early submarine-versus-submarine successes led to British development of the R-class submarine intended specifically for this role. These were relatively small craft, 163 feet long and displacing 410 tons on the surface, with only one propeller (most contemporary submarines had two). Diesel engines could drive them at nine knots on the surface, but once submerged, large batteries permitted their electric motors to drive them underwater at the high speed of 15 knots for two hours. (Ten knots was a common speed for submerged submarines until after World War II.) Thus, they were both maneuverable and fast. Advanced underwater listening equipment (asdic, or sonar) was installed, and six forward torpedo tubes made them potent weapons. Although these submarines appeared too late to have any actual effect on the war, they pioneered a new concept in the development of the submarine.

      All World War I-era submarines were propelled by diesels on the surface and by electric motors submerged, except for the British Swordfish and K class. These submarines, intended to operate as scouts for surface warships, required the high speeds then available only from steam turbines. The K-boats steamed at 23.5 knots on the surface, while electric motors gave them a 10-knot submerged speed.

World War II

      Interest in submarines continued high within the world's navies during the period between World Wars I and II. Britain, France, and Japan built improved types, and during this period the U.S. Navy built its first large long-range submarine, the Argonaut. Completed in 1928, it was 381 feet long, displaced 2,710 tons on the surface, was armed with two six-inch guns and four forward torpedo tubes, and could carry 60 mines. The Argonaut, the largest nonnuclear submarine ever built by the U.S. Navy, led to the highly successful Gato and Balao classes of U.S. submarines used in World War II.

      During the 1930s the rejuvenated Soviet shipyards began producing large numbers of submarines, primarily coastal craft, in an attempt to make the Soviet Union a sea power without major expenditures for surface warships. But though the Soviet program achieved quantity, their ships were unsuitable for operations against the German Navy, their crews were poorly trained, and Soviet bases were blocked by ice much of the time.

      World War II saw extensive submarine campaigns on all of the world's oceans. In the Atlantic the principal German U-boat was the VII type, a relatively small but effective craft when properly employed. The Type VIIC variant was 220.25 feet long, displaced 769 tons on the surface, and was powered by diesel-electric machinery at a speed of 17 knots on the surface and 7.5 knots submerged. Armament consisted of one 90-millimetre deck gun, various antiaircraft guns, and five torpedo tubes, four forward and one aft. Either 14 torpedoes or 14 tube-launched mines were carried. Manned by a crew of 44, these submarines had a surface endurance of 6,500 miles at 12 knots, but, when they were submerged, their batteries would remain active a little less than a day at four knots.

      The ultimate diesel-electric submarine evolved in the war was the German Type XXI, a 250-foot, 1,600-ton craft that could attain 17 ¹/₂ knots submerged for more than an hour, could travel at six knots underwater for two days, or could “creep” at slower speeds for four days. These submarines were fitted with snorkel devices (see below), which made it unnecessary for them to surface fully to recharge their batteries after operating submerged. The Type XXI had an operating depth of 850 feet, more than twice what was then normal, and was armed with four 33-millimetre guns and six forward torpedo tubes (23 torpedoes carried). These properties made all earlier submarines obsolete. Existing Allied antisubmarine forces would have had serious trouble coping with these craft had the war continued past the spring of 1945.

      A final German war design of particular interest was the Walter turbine propulsion plant. The need for oxygen for combustion had previously prevented the use of steam turbines or diesels while the submarine was submerged and air was at a premium. Hellmuth Walter, a German scientist, developed a turbine propulsion system using oxygen generated by hydrogen peroxide to operate the turbine while submerged. A simplified submarine, the V-80, built in 1940 and propelled by a Walter turbine system, could attain speeds of more than 26 knots submerged for a short period of time. After many delays, the first Walter-propelled Type XVII combat submarines were completed and could reach 25 knots underwater for brief periods, and a submerged run of 20 knots for 5 ¹/₂ hours was achieved on trials. But these submarines, like the Type XXI, were not ready for full-scale operations when the war ended.

      A notable German submarine development of World War II was the schnorchel device (anglicized by the U.S. Navy to “ snorkel”). Its invention is credited to a Dutch officer, Lieutenant Jan J. Wichers, who in 1933 advanced the idea of a breathing tube to supply fresh air to a submarine's diesel engines while it was running submerged. The Netherlands Navy began using snorkels in 1936, and some fell into German hands in 1940. With the advent of radar to detect surfaced submarines, the Germans fitted hundreds of U-boats with snorkels to permit the operation of diesels at periscope depth (to recharge batteries for underwater propulsion) with less of a possibility of detection by Allied radar-equipped ships and aircraft.

      In the Pacific war the Japanese employed a large number of submarines of various sizes and types, including aircraft-carrying submarines, midget submarines, and “human torpedoes” carried by larger submarines. The Japanese I-201 class was a high-speed submarine, of 259 feet and 1,291 tons displacement, that had diesel propulsion for 15 knots on the surface; while underwater, large batteries and electric motors could drive the vessel at a speed of 19 knots for almost one hour. Each boat had two 25-millimetre guns and four forward torpedo tubes and carried ten torpedoes.

      The highly successful U.S. submarine campaign in the Pacific war was waged mainly with the Gato- and Balao-class submarines. These were approximately 311.5 feet long, displaced 1,525 tons, and had diesel-electric machinery for 20-knot surface and nine-knot underwater speeds. The principal difference between the two designs was the 300-foot operating depth for the Gato class and 400-foot depth for the Balao boats. Manned by 65 to 70, these submarines had one or two five-inch deck guns plus smaller antiaircraft weapons and 10 torpedo tubes (six forward, four aft) and carried 24 torpedoes.

Postwar developments

      After the war the Allies were quick to adopt advanced German submarine technology. The British built two peroxide turbine-propelled experimental submarines, but this concept lost favour because of the unstable properties of hydrogen peroxide and because of American success with nuclear propulsion. The Soviet Union began building modifications of the Type XXI submarine. Some 265 of these submarines, labeled Whiskey and Zulu class by NATO observers, were completed between 1950 and 1958, more submarines than built by all of the world's other navies combined between 1945 and 1970. (In that period Soviet shipyards produced a total of 560 new submarines.)

      The U.S. Navy studied German technology and converted 52 war-built submarines to the Guppy configuration (an acronym for greater underwater propulsive power with the “y” added for phonetics). These submarines had their deck guns removed and streamlined conning towers fitted; larger batteries and a snorkel were installed; four torpedoes and, in some craft, one of the four diesel engines were removed. The result was an underwater speed of 15 knots and increased underwater endurance.

Norman C. Polmar Ed.

      Although the major powers switched to nuclear power after World War II, the great bulk of the world's navies continued to buy—or in a few cases, build—submarines descended directly from the fast diesel-electric U-boats of the war. (Indeed, many of them were designed and built in West Germany.) The main advances were in weapons and sensors. Deck guns were abandoned, in some cases for antiship missiles. Torpedoes (torpedo), which soon could exceed 50 knots, either homed onto their targets acoustically with self-contained sonar or were guided by electronic commands passed to them through a threadlike wire paid out behind the speeding projectile. Submarine sonars, for detecting both surface ships and other submarines, were enormously improved.

      On the other hand, maximum submerged speed increased only somewhat (to more than 20 knots) over the German Type XXI, and endurance at top speed was no greater than at the end of World War II. Improvements in battery design concentrated more on increasing endurance at low speed. Some modern submarines, for example, could remain submerged (at about three knots) for as long as a week to 10 days. That was an important improvement, since during so long a period sea conditions could easily arise that would allow a submarine to escape or force submarine hunters on the surface to disperse.

      Postwar diesel-electric submarines continued to be equipped with snorkels, but hunters adopted improved radars that could detect even the small head of the snorkel, just as aircraft with more primitive radars could detect surfaced U-boats during World War II.

      For these reasons, diesel-electric submarines remained furtive platforms, conserving their energy for the postattack escape. Because their electric motors were quieter than nuclear units (and could even be shut off for a time), they were sometimes proposed as antisubmarine ambushers that would silently await their prey in areas through which enemy submarines were known to pass. Britain's Upholder class, 230 feet long and displacing about 2,000 tons at the surface, was built in the 1980s to operate in this capacity alongside nuclear vessels.

Nuclear propulsion

      In 1954, with the commissioning of USS Nautilus, nuclear power became available. Since the nuclear reactor needed no oxygen at all, a single power plant could now suffice for both surface and submerged operation. Moreover, since a very small quantity of nuclear fuel (enriched uranium) provided power over a very long period, a nuclear submarine could operate completely submerged at high speed indefinitely.

      This change was revolutionary. In the typical prenuclear submarine attack, the submarine approached the target on the surface to avoid draining the battery and submerged only just before coming within sight of the target. The submerged approach had to be made at very low speed, perhaps no more than two or three knots, again to avoid wasting battery power. The submarine commander had to husband his battery charge until after the attack, when he would have to use full underwater power (and a speed of perhaps seven to 10 knots) to evade the counterattack. Even then, a full battery charge would last only about one or two hours at top speed. This necessity of conserving battery power, which forced diesel-electric submarines to approach their targets as quietly and slowly as possible, meant that they could not engage most fast surface warships, such as aircraft carriers and battleships.

      Nuclear submarines were in an altogether different class. Not only could they evade freely (that is, at top speed for indefinite periods) after attacking, they could also operate freely before attacking and keep up with fast surface ships. This principle was illustrated by the only instance of a nuclear submarine's firing of a weapon in anger. During the Falkland Islands (Falkland Islands War) conflict in 1982, a British nuclear submarine, HMS Conqueror, followed the fast Argentine cruiser General Belgrano for more than 48 hours before closing in to sink it. That performance would have been entirely beyond the capability of any prenuclear submarine. For the first time, a submarine commander could maneuver freely underwater, without worrying that he was exhausting his vessel's batteries, and fast surface warships were vulnerable to submarine attack.

      Initially, the major powers continued to build diesel-electric submarines alongside nuclear vessels, but some later gave in to the expense of maintaining two categories of submarine in parallel. After 1959 the U.S. Navy effectively ceased construction of nonnuclear submarines. The Royal Navy, which completed its first nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought, in 1963, followed a similar policy until the 1980s, when it began the Upholder class. France completed its first nuclear submarine, Le Redoutable, in 1971 and effectively abandoned diesel-electric construction in 1976. Although the Soviets continued to build diesel submarines, the bulk of their new construction shifted to nuclear power after their first nuclear submarines, of the November class, entered service in 1958. Beginning in 1968, the Chinese built a few nuclear submarines while continuing to build large numbers of nonnuclear submarines.

Nuclear power plants

Reactors

      A nuclear reactor provides the heat that powers a steam turbine, which in turn drives a propeller. There are three main types of marine nuclear reactor: pressurized-water, natural-circulation, and liquid-metal.

      Generally, uranium in a reactor produces heat by nuclear fission. In the reactor, the uranium is surrounded by a moderator, which is required to slow the reaction neutrons so that they will interact more efficiently with the uranium. In most reactors the moderator is water, which is also used to carry away the heat of reaction. This heated water is called the primary loop water. Pressurized to prevent it from boiling, it runs through a heat exchanger, in which the heat is passed to another, secondary, water circuit. The heat exchanger is essentially a boiler, and the secondary circuit, or loop, provides the steam that actually turns the turbine. So long as a sufficient seal is maintained, the water of the primary loop cannot contaminate the rest of the power plant.

      In most cases the water in the primary loop is circulated by pump. Reactors can also be arranged so that differences in temperature—for example, between that portion of the reactor containing the reacting fuel and the rest of the reactor—force the water to circulate naturally. Typically, in these natural-circulation reactors cooled water from the heat exchanger is fed into the bottom of the reactor, and it rises through the fuel elements as they heat it.

      The liquid-metal-cooled reactor operates on the principle that molten metal can carry much more heat than water, so that a more compact turbine can be used. Against that advantage, molten metal can be made highly radioactive, so that leaks, which are dangerous enough in a pressurized-water plant, become much more so. Second, pumps in these reactors must be much more powerful, and the simplicity of using the same substance as moderator and heat sink is lost. Finally, there is always the possibility that enough heat will be lost for the plant to seize up, the metal solidifying in the pipes, with catastrophic results.

Adoption by navies

      Under the direction of Captain (later Admiral) Hyman Rickover, the U.S. Navy developed both pressurized-water and liquid-metal prototypes. It completed its first two nuclear submarines, the Nautilus and Seawolf, to test the two types, but problems (including leakage) in the Seawolf reactor led to the abandonment of the liquid-metal scheme. Later the navy also developed natural-circulation reactors. U.S. attack submarines (except for USS Narwhal, the natural-circulation prototype) were built with pressurized-water reactors, but the Ohio-class strategic submarines of the 1980s were powered by natural-circulation reactors. The latter were inherently quieter than pressurized-water units because they required no pumps, at least at low and moderate power.

      Soon after the Nautilus was completed, the Royal Navy adopted American-type pressurized-water reactors, but by the early 1980s it was developing natural-circulation reactors of its own design.

      The first generation of French nuclear power plants, built for strategic submarines, were pressurized-water types. French attack submarines, on the other hand, were powered by natural-circulation units, at least at low and moderate speeds.

      The Soviet Union revealed little about its nuclear submarine program, but most of its plants were apparently of the pressurized-water type. However, its most compact and powerful plant, in the very fast Alfa-class attack submarines of the 1970s and '80s, was thought to use liquid metal.

The nuclear navies

      The advent of the new nuclear submarines had two great consequences. One was the rise of an altogether new kind of submarine, the strategic submarine. The other was a revolution in antisubmarine warfare, with attack submarines becoming the primary antisubmarine weapons. Attack submarines were armed with torpedoes and, in some cases, with antiship missiles. Strategic submarines carried similar weapons, but their primary weapons were submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), such as the U.S. Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident and the Soviet SS-N-6 Sawfly, SS-N-18 Stingray, and SS-N-20 Sturgeon.

Strategic submarines

      Strategic submarines were valuable because they were so difficult to find and kill, and they became even more important as long-range SLBMs became more accurate. Accurate missiles could destroy missiles in fixed land sites; were all strategic missiles so based, the side firing first could hope to disarm its enemy. However, with many missiles now based at sea, such a first strike became virtually impossible—barring some breakthrough in submarine detection. To the extent that preemptive attack was impractical, therefore, a force of strategic submarines became an effective deterrent against enemy attack. For this reason, the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and China all built submarines armed with SLBMs.

      Strategic submarines actually predated the nuclear-propulsion era, in that during the 1950s both the U.S. and Soviet navies developed missile-carrying diesel-electric submarines. The U.S. submarines were armed with Regulus cruise missiles (cruise missile), and the Soviet ships carried SS-N-3 Shaddock cruise missiles and SS-N-4 Sark short-range SLBMs. However, these missiles had to be launched from the surface, and the submarines themselves could not remain submerged indefinitely. Strategic submarines did not become truly effective until nuclear power plants and dive-launched missiles enabled them to operate continuously without exposing themselves on the surface in any way.

      The first modern strategic submarines were of the U.S. George Washington class, which became operational in 1959. These 5,900-ton, 382-foot vessels carried 16 Polaris missiles, which had a range of 1,200 nautical miles. In 1967 the first of the Soviet Union's 8,000-ton Yankee-class submarines were delivered, which carried 16 SS-N-6 missiles of 1,300-nautical-mile range. These were followed a decade later by Delta-class vessels fitted with 16 SS-N-18 missiles. Each SS-N-18 had a range of 3,500 nautical miles. In 1982 the Soviet Union began to deploy its Typhoon class, of 18,500 tons displacement at the surface and about 560 feet in length. These submarines carried 20 SS-N-20 SLBMs, each of which could carry its warheads a distance of 4,500 nautical miles.

 Beginning in 1970, the United States fitted its Lafayette-class submarines with 16 Poseidon SLBMs, which could launch its warheads a distance of 2,500 nautical miles. To carry 24 Trident missiles, improved versions of which could travel about 6,500 nautical miles, the U.S. Navy commissioned the first Ohio-class submarine in 1981 (see photograph—>). These vessels displaced 16,600 tons at the surface and were about as long as the Soviet Typhoons.

      Britain's first strategic submarines, of the Resolution class, entered service in 1967 with 16 Polaris missiles. The first Vanguard-class vessel was laid down in 1986 to carry 16 Trident missiles.

      To supplement the Redoutable class of the 1970s, France built L'Inflexible. This 8,000-ton submarine, which entered service in 1985, carried 16 M-4 SLBMs, each with a range of 2,800 nautical miles. In 1988 the first of the Triomphant class was laid down; as replacements of the Redoutable class, these were designed to carry SLBMs of 6,000-nautical-mile range.

      In 1981 China launched the fist Xia-class strategic submarine. It was armed with 12 CSS-N-3 missiles with a range of 1,500 nautical miles.

Attack submarines

      After the rise of nuclear-powered strategic submarines, it seemed that only other nuclear submarines could maneuver in three dimensions and remain in contact long enough to destroy them. Surface ships were clearly handicapped because their sonars could not operate as freely as those of a submarine. That situation changed somewhat when surface warships began to tow passive sonar arrays at submarine-like depths and when ship- or helicopter-launched homing torpedoes acquired a fair chance of holding and killing their targets. Both submarines and surface ships, therefore, became effective antisubmarine weapons, but only submarines could operate near an enemy's bases, where hostile submarines would be easier to find, and only they could lie in ambush with little chance of being detected.

      Most modern nuclear attack submarines adopted a dual function: to attack enemy surface ships and to destroy enemy submarines. For example, the U.S. Sturgeon submarines of the 1960s and '70s and their successors, the Los Angeles class, carried torpedoes and rocket-launched nuclear depth bombs for antisubmarine warfare as well as underwater-launched Harpoon missiles for attacking surface ships from as far away as 70 nautical miles. From 1984 both classes were fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which could be programmed to strike ships 250 nautical miles away or, in a strategic variant, to hit land targets with a nuclear warhead at ranges up to 1,300 nautical miles.

      The Soviets tended to divide their attack submarines between antisubmarine and cruise-missile duties. Beginning in 1971, the SS-N-7 Star Bright cruise missile, which could be launched underwater and could strike ships 35 nautical miles away, was deployed in Charlie-class submarines. The SS-N-7 began a series of dive-launched antiship cruise missiles of increasing range, culminating in the SS-N-19 Shipwreck, a supersonic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead 340 nautical miles. Twenty-four of these weapons were carried aboard the 13,000-ton, 500-foot Oscar submarines, which entered service in 1980.

      The most prominent submarine-hunting submarines of the Soviet Union were of the three Victor classes. The Victor I vessels, which entered service beginning in 1968, introduced the “tear-drop” hull configuration to the underwater Soviet Navy. These and the 6,000-ton Victor II and III classes of the following decades were fitted with rocket-launched torpedoes or nuclear depth bombs, giving them a battle range extending to 50 nautical miles.

      Adding a further role to Soviet attack submarines after 1987 was the SS-N-21 Sampson cruise missile, a weapon with a nuclear capability and range similar to those of the U.S. Tomahawk.

      The British Valiant, Swiftsure, and Trafalgar classes of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s displaced between 4,000 and 4,500 tons at the surface and were about 285 feet long. They were armed with torpedoes and dive-launched Harpoon missiles. In France, the first Rubis-class submarine was laid down in 1976 with torpedo and sonar systems inherited from the diesel-electric Agosta class. Beginning in 1984, new and existing vessels of this class were given improved sonar and silencing and were fitted with dive-launched Exocet antiship missiles. They displaced about 2,400 tons at the surface and were about 235 feet long.

Design principles

      After 1955 the three main trends in nuclear attack submarine design in the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union were increased speed, increased diving depth, and silencing.

Speed

      Increased speed required increased power. Since the resistance a submarine encounters is a function of its surface area, the ideal was to achieve greater power without increasing the volume or weight of the power plant and, therefore, the size of the submarine. A more powerful (and therefore noisier) engine could be silenced, but only by increasing the size of the submarine, which in turn would lower its speed. These complex trade-offs were illustrated by the Sturgeon and Los Angeles submarines. Reactor power approximately doubled between these two generations, but overall size increased enormously, from about 3,600 to 6,000 tons surfaced. The Soviets, meanwhile, achieved very high speed (about 40 knots, compared to slightly over 30 knots for fast Western submarines) in their Alfa class, but probably at the cost of a great deal of noise at high speed.

      Speed was prized for several quite different reasons. At first, the U.S. and Soviet navies developed fast submarines primarily as antiship weapons. In the 1950s the Guppy-style hull design of USS Nautilus gave it a submerged speed of over 20 knots, which was fast enough to evade surface ships but not to counterattack them. To make up this deficit, U.S. submarines then under design were altered by adapting nuclear power to the tapered “tear-drop” hull of the experimental submarine Albacore. The resulting Skipjack class, which entered service in 1959, came up with a top speed in excess of 30 knots.

      In a spectacular demonstration of the Soviets' fast attack capabilities, a Soviet nuclear submarine intercepted the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in February 1968. The submarine was not quite as fast as the Enterprise, but it was fast enough to keep the carrier within weapon range while the carrier accelerated to top speed.

      With the commencement of the Soviet fast nuclear program, the U.S. Navy shifted its emphasis to dual-purpose vessels capable of attacking submarines as well as surface ships. High speed, as achieved in the 1970s and '80s by the Los Angeles class, was then required to keep up with the fast surface targets that the Soviet submarines were expected to attack.

      High sustained speed also made it possible for submarines to deploy more efficiently to distant patrol stations. Although nuclear submarines' fuel supplies were effectively unlimited, they were limited in their capacity for stores and could not expect to remain at sea for more than about 60 to 90 days. The more rapidly they could reach their patrol area, therefore, the more productive time they could spend there.

      As in the case of nonnuclear submarines, higher speed was also valued for evasion after an attack. However, when that higher speed was bought at the cost of louder operation, submarines became easier to detect. Also, from the mid-1950s the main antisubmarine weapons were homing torpedoes, which became significantly faster than the submarines they sought, and nuclear depth bombs, which might be dropped effectively anywhere in the vicinity of a submarine. In all of these cases, sheer speed was no longer a guarantee of evasion, although it did make attack more difficult.

Depth

      Deeper diving was valued for several reasons. As in the past, it could be combined with higher speed for better evasion. In addition, a deep-diving submarine could make better use of its own sonar, partly because it could operate in several quite different layers of the sea. This advantage was reflected in a change in U.S. submarine sonars that began about 1960. Previous submarine units had been cylindrical, producing broad, fan-shaped beams that could determine target range and bearing but not target depth. The new sonars were spherical, producing narrow, pencil-shaped beams that could distinguish between targets at different depths. They could also make better use of sonar reflection off the sea bottom and surface to achieve greater range.

      Finally, greater maximum operating depth became particularly important at high speed, when there was always a possibility that a submarine would accidentally tip down and descend below a safe operating depth before the downward motion could be corrected. It is no surprise, then, that the greatest reported diving depth (about 2,800 feet) was associated with the highest reported maximum speed (about 43 knots), in the Soviet Alfa class. (Diving depth of most other modern attack submarines was reportedly between 1,000 and 1,500 feet.)

      Greater depth required a stronger (and heavier) hull, and increased power required a stronger power plant. Attempts to combine the two required a larger hull (to provide enough buoyancy); that in turn added underwater resistance, which cut the speed advantage gained from the more powerful engine. This tension between different requirements explains the characteristics of many modern submarines. For example, the Los Angeles class was said to have sacrificed some diving depth in order to achieve higher speed. In the Alfa class, weight was saved by adopting an expensive titanium-alloy hull and a very compact power plant.

Silencing

      Until the late 1950s, submarines were usually detected by active sonar; that is, by sound waves bounced off their hulls. Because these sound waves could also be detected by the hunted submarine, they gave it warning that it was in danger of attack. Also, because water can support only so much sonar energy, active sonar was limited in range. Beginning in the early 1950s, then, the U.S. and British navies began to investigate passive sonar, in which sensors detected noises emanating from the submarine itself. Early nuclear submarines were quite susceptible to such detection because their machinery was very noisy. In particular, the pumps required to circulate the coolant, which could not be turned off without melting the reactor core, could be heard at a considerable distance.

      Beginning at that time, silencing became a major thrust in submarine design. The pumps of pressurized-water reactors were redesigned to be quieter, and in many submarines the machinery was carried clear of the hull on sound-absorbing mounts. All of this added to the size and weight of the machinery and to the expense of construction; it also added to the attraction of natural-circulation plants.

      As a further step in silencing, hulls were coated with sound-absorbing material. Even relatively simple coatings could drastically reduce the effectiveness of homing torpedoes.

Norman Friedman

Additional Reading

The engineering characteristics of submarines are explored in Ulrich Gabler, Submarine Design (1986; originally published in German, 1964); Norman Friedman, Submarine Design and Development (1984); Eberhard Rössler, The U-Boat: The Evolution and Technical History of German Submarines (1981; originally published in German, 1975); and John D. Alden, The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy: A Design and Construction History (1979). Erminio Bagnasco, Submarines of World War Two (1977; originally published in Italian, 1973); Dorr Carpenter and Norman Polmar, Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1986); and Richard Compton-Hall, The Underwater War, 1939–1945 (1982), discuss underwater naval operations during this specific period. Antisubmarine warfare is the subject of Richard Compton-Hall, Submarine Versus Submarine: The Tactics and Technology of Underwater Warfare (1988).Norman Friedman

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