NAVYPEDIA

Photo

Triton 1966

Ships

No	Name	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comm	Fate
SSRN586, 3.1961- SSN586	Triton	149	Electric Boat, Groton	29.5.1956	19.8.1958	10.11.1959	attack nuclear-powered submarine 3.1961, stricken 4.1986

Technical data

Displacement standard, t
Displacement normal, t	5963 / 7773
Length, m	135.7 wl 136.4 oa
Breadth, m	11.3
Draught, m	7.20
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 sets General Electric geared steam turbines, 2 General Electric S4G nuclear reactors
Power, h. p.	34000
Max speed, kts	27 / 20
Fuel, t	nuclear
Endurance, nm(kts)	practically unlimited
Armament	6 - 533 Mk 60 TT (4 bow, 2 stern, 15)
Electronic equipment	BPS-2, SPS-26, BPS-12 radars, BQS-4, BQR-2 sonars, WLR-1 ECM suite
Complement	180
Diving depth operational, m	210

Standard scale images

Graphics

Project history

The construction of this very large nuclear submarine seemed to solve the problem of low surface speed in radar-pickets: with her two-reactor plant, she had a reported speed of 27kts on the surface (but only 20kts submerged). Design features included a very large fin into which air search antennas could retract, and a large CIC for air control. She was also the first US submarine with a three-deck hull. Commissioned in 1959, she was reclassified as an attack submarine on 1 March 1961, and decommissioned 3 May 1969 as too expensive to operate and too unwieldly to be an effective attack submarine. Proposals to use her as an alternative National Emergency Command Post Afloat (as in the cruiser Northampton) were abandoned; she was the first nuclear-powered warship to be laid up.

Modernizations

None.

Naval service

No significant events.