NAVYPEDIA

Support the project with paypal


HOME
FIGHTING SHIPS OF THE WORLD
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
SUBMARINES
TRITON nuclear powered early warning submarine (1959)


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 equipmentBPS-2, SPS-26, BPS-12 radars, BQS-4, BQR-2 sonars, WLR-1 ECM suite
Complement

180

Diving depth operational, m210


Standard scale images


<i>Triton </i>1959
Triton 1959
<i>Triton </i>1963
Triton 1963


Graphics


<i>Triton </i>1966
Triton 1966


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.