The ''Skate''-class submarines were the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

's first production run of nuclear-powered submarines. They were an evolution of the in everything except their propulsion plants, which were based on the operational prototype . The four ''Skate'' class boats re-introduced stern torpedo tubes. Although among the smallest nuclear-powered attack submarines ever built, the ''Skate'' class served for many years, with the last being decommissioned in 1989. USS ''Skate'' was the first submarine to surface at the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

, on 17 March 1959. ''Skate'' and ''Sargo'' were built with the

S3W reactor The S3W reactor is a United States Naval reactor, naval reactor used by the United States Navy to provide electricity generation and Nuclear marine propulsion, propulsion on warships. The S3W designation stands for: * S = Submarine platform * 3 ...

, ''Swordfish'' and ''Seadragon'' also had the S3W reactor in the S4W reactor plant (same machinery in an alternate arrangement).

Design

The ''Skate'' class were designed under project SCB 121 as economical production nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs), and thus were smaller and more austere than their ground-breaking predecessor , whose high cost had raised concerns. They were designed before ''Nautilus'' demonstrated the advantages of sustained high underwater speed, thus their designed speed was about the maximum speed of the conventional ''Tang'' class, which had a similar displacement to the ''Skate''s. Their S3W reactor was a scaled-down version of ''Nautilus'' S2W reactor with about half the power output; it was known as SFR (Submarine Fleet Reactor) during development. A slightly modified version known as S4W powered the second pair of ''Skate''-class boats. Unfortunately, scaling down the reactor did not reduce the weight of reactor shielding proportionally, and it was eventually realized that further downsizing was impractical. In the late 1950s it was hoped that the

nuclear-powered aircraft A nuclear-powered aircraft is a concept for an aircraft intended to be powered by nuclear energy. The intention was to produce a jet engine that would heat compressed air with heat from fission, instead of heat from burning fuel. During the Co ...

program would develop reactors suitable for very small SSNs, but the program was unsuccessful. Their armament was the same as the ''Tang''s, six bow and two stern 21 inch (533 mm)

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s. Like the ''Tang''s, the stern tubes had no ejection pump, and could only be used for swim-out weapons such as the Mark 37 ASW homing torpedo. The quest for a high submerged speed and improved sonar led to the subsequent and es becoming the model for further development.

Service

''Skate'' was notable as the first submarine to surface at the

, on 17 March 1959. A previous attempt in 1958 had resulted in no suitable place found for surfacing near the Pole. ''Sargo'' and ''Seadragon'' also conducted significant polar operations in their careers. This class was the most suited for ice breakthrough attempts until the , with

fairwater plane Diving planes, also known as hydroplanes, are control surfaces found on a submarine which allow the vessel to pitch its bow and stern up or down to assist in the process of submerging or surfacing the boat, as well as controlling depth when subm ...

s that could be rotated vertically, entered service beginning in 1967. After 25–30 years each of successful service, mostly out of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, the class was retired in the 1980s and disposed of through the Navy's nuclear

Ship-Submarine Recycling Program The Ship-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) is the process that the United States Navy uses to dispose of decommissioned nuclear vessels. SRP takes place only at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington, but the preparations ...

Ships in class

References

*Miller, David. ''The Illustrated Directory of Submarines of the World'', p. 366. . *

External links

SSN Photo Gallery index at NavSource.org
{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2017 Submarine classes Skate class Skate class