A
submarine is a
watercraftA watercraft is a vehicle, vessel or craft designed to move across water, including saltwater and freshwater, for pleasure, recreation, physical exercise, commerce, transport and military missions. It is derived from the term "craft" which was used as term to describe all types of water going...
capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a
submersible***Also see Submersible drilling rig for offshore drillingA submersible is a commerical or non-military midget submarine with limited service range and is typically transported to its area of operation by a surface vessel or large submarine....
, which has only limited underwater capability. The term submarine most commonly refers to large crewed autonomous vessels; however, historically or more casually, submarine can also refer to medium sized or smaller vessels (
midget submarineA midget submarine is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to 6 or 8, with little or no on-board living accommodation...
s,
wet subA wet sub is a type of underwater vehicle that does not provide a dry environment for its occupants. Usually, wet suited scuba divers will ride upon the device , although it can be designed to fully enclose its occupant to provide lower drag...
s),
Remotely Operated VehicleA remotely operated vehicle is a tethered underwater robot. They are common in deepwater industries such as offshore hydrocarbon extraction. An ROV may sometimes be called a remotely operated underwater vehicle to distinguish it from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the air. ROVs...
s or
robotsAn autonomous underwater vehicle is a robot which travels underwater. In military applications, AUVs are also known as unmanned undersea vehicles ...
. The word submarine was originally an adjective meaning "under the sea", and so consequently other uses such as "submarine engineering" or "
submarine cableA submarine communications cable is a cable laid beneath the sea to carry telecommunications between countries.The first submarine communications cables carried telegraphy traffic. Subsequent generations of cables carried first telephony traffic, then data communications traffic...
" may not actually refer to submarines at all. Submarine was shortened from the term "submarine boat", and is often further shortened to "sub".
Submarines are referred to as "
boatA boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is...
s" for historical reasons because vessels deployed from a ship are referred to as boats. The first submarines were launched in such a manner. The
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
term
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
for a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
submarine comes from the
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
word for submarine,
U-Boot, itself an
abbreviationAn abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
for
Unterseeboot ("undersea boat").
Although experimental submarines had been built before, submarine design took off during the 19th century. Submarines were first widely used in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, and feature in many large
naviesA navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
. Military usage ranges from attacking enemy ships or submarines,
aircraft carrierAn aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power great distances without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
protection,
blockadeA blockade is an effort to cut off the communications of a particular area by force. It is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, rather than a fortress or city. Also, a blockade historically took place at sea, with the blockading power seeking...
running, ballistic missile submarines as part of a nuclear strike force,
reconnaissanceReconnaissance is a military and medical term denoting exploration conducted to gain information. Militarily, its shorthand Canadian and British form is recce , its American usage form is recon...
, conventional land attack (for example using a
cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
), and covert insertion of
special forcesSpecial forces and special operations forces are generic terms for elite highly-trained military teams/units that conduct specialized operations such as reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, direct action and counter-terrorism actions.In the United States, the term special operations forces is...
. Civilian uses for submarines include marine science, salvage, exploration and facility inspection/maintenance. Submarines can also be specialised to a function such as search and rescue, or undersea cable repair. Submarines are also used in tourism and for academic research.
Submarines have one of the largest ranges of capabilities in any vessel, ranging from small autonomous examples to one or two-person vessels operating for a few hours, to vessels which can remain submerged for 6 months such as the
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n
Typhoon classThe Typhoon class submarine is a type of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. With a maximum displacement of 33,800 tons, the Typhoons are the largest class of submarine ever built, large to accommodate decent living faculities for the crew, when the...
. Submarines can work at greater depths than are survivable or practical for human
diverDiver or divers can refer to:*Diving, the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water**:Category:Divers*Underwater diving**:Category:Underwater divers**Scuba diving, in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater...
s. Modern deep diving submarines are derived from the
bathyscapheA bathyscaphe is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere, but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable, as in the classic bathysphere design....
, which in turn was an evolution of the
diving bellA diving bell, also known as a wet bell, is a cable-suspended airtight chamber, open at the bottom like a moon pool structure, that is lowered underwater to operate as a base or a means of transport for a small number of divers. The pressure of the water keeps the air trapped inside the bell. They...
.
Most large submarines comprise a cylindrical body with conical ends and a vertical structure, usually located amidships, which houses communications and sensing devices as well as periscopes. In modern submarines this structure is the "sail" in American usage ("fin" in European usage). A "
conning towerA conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman...
" was a feature of earlier designs: a separate pressure hull above the main body of the boat that allowed the use of shorter periscopes. There is a propeller (or pump jet) at the rear and various hydrodynamic control fins as well as ballast tanks. Smaller, deep diving and specialty submarines may deviate significantly from this traditional layout.
Military usage
Before and during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the primary role of the submarine was anti-surface ship warfare. Submarines would attack either on the surface or submerged, using
torpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target...
es or (on the surface) deck guns. They were particularly effective in sinking Allied transatlantic shipping in both World Wars, and in disrupting Japanese supply routes and naval operations in the Pacific in World War II.
MineA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of or contact with an enemy ship...
-laying submarines were developed in the early part of the 20th century. The facility was used in both World Wars. Submarines were also used for inserting and removing covert agents and military forces, for intelligence-gathering and to rescue aircrew during large-scale air attacks on islands, where the airmen would be told of safe places to crash-land damaged aircraft so the submarine crew could rescue them. Submarines could carry cargo through hostile waters or act as supply vessels for other submarines.
Submarines could usually locate and attack other submarines only on the surface, although managed to sink
U-864 with a four torpedo spread while both were submerged. The British developed a specialised anti-submarine submarine in World War I, the
R classThe R class submarines were a class of 12 small British diesel-electric submarines built for the Royal Navy during World War I, and were forerunners of the modern hunter-killer submarines, in that they were designed specifically to attack and sink enemy submarines, their battery capacity and hull...
. After World War II, with the development of the homing torpedo, better
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water...
systems, and
nuclear propulsionNuclear navy, or nuclear powered navy consists of ships powered by relatively small onboard nuclear reactors known as naval reactors. The concept was revolutionary for naval warfare when first proposed, as it meant that these vessels did not need to stop for fuel like their conventional...
, submarines also became able to hunt each other effectively.
The development of
submarine-launched nuclear missilesSubmarine-launched ballistic missile is a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead that can be launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles each of which carries a warhead and allows a single launched missile to...
and submarine-launched cruise missiles gave submarines a substantial and long-ranged ability to attack both land and sea targets with a variety of weapons ranging from
cluster bombCluster munitions or cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapons that eject smaller submunitions: a cluster of bomblets. The most common types are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles...
s to
nuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
s.
The primary defense of a submarine lies in its ability to remain concealed in the depths of the ocean. Early submarines could be detected underwater by the sound they made. Water is an excellent conductor of sound, and submarines can detect and track comparatively noisy surface ships from long distances. Modern submarines are built with an emphasis on stealth. Advanced propeller designs, extensive sound-reducing insulation, and special machinery allow a submarine to be as quiet as ambient ocean noise, making them extremely difficult to detect. It takes specialized technology to find and attack modern submarines.
Active sonar uses the reflection of a sound emitted from the search equipment to detect submarines. It has been used since World War II by surface ships, submarines or even aircraft, but it gives away the position of the emitter and is susceptible to counter-measures.
A concealed military submarine is a real threat and, because of its stealth, it can force an enemy navy to waste resources searching large areas of ocean and protecting all ships against possible attack. This advantage was vividly demonstrated in the 1982
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
when the British SSN
HMS ConquerorHMS Conqueror was a nuclear-powered fleet submarine that served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1990. She was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. As of 2009, she is the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes, sinking the cruiser ARA General Belgrano with two...
sank the Argentine cruiser
General Belgrano. After the sinking the Argentine Navy realized that they were vulnerable to submarine attack, and that they had no defense from it. Thus the Argentine surface fleet withdrew to port for the remainder of the war, though an Argentine submarine remained at sea.
Civil uses
Although the majority of the world's submarines are military ones, there are some civil submarines. They have a variety of uses, including tourism, exploration, oil and gas platform inspections and pipeline surveys. The first tourist submarine was launched in 1985, and by 1997 there were 45 of them operating around the world.
A semi-civilian use was the adaption of
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s for cargo transport during WWI and WWII.
Submersion and trimming
All surface ships, as well as surfaced submarines, are in a positively
buoyantIn physics, buoyancy is the upward force that keeps things afloat. The net upward buoyancy force is equal to the magnitude of the weight of fluid displaced by the body. This force enables the object to float or at least seem lighter....
condition, weighing less than the volume of water they would displace if fully submerged. To submerge hydrostatically, a ship must have negative buoyancy, either by increasing its own weight or decreasing its displacement of water. To control their weight, submarines have ballast tanks, which can be filled with outside water or pressurized air.
For general submersion or surfacing, submarines use the forward and aft tanks, called Main Ballast Tanks or MBTs, which are filled with water to submerge, or filled with air to surface. Under submerged conditions, MBTs generally remain flooded, which simplifies their design, and on many submarines these tanks are a section of interhull space. For more precise and quick control of depth, submarines use smaller Depth Control Tanks or DCTs, also called hard tanks due to their ability to withstand higher pressure. The amount of water in depth control tanks can be controlled either to reflect changes in outside conditions or change depth. Depth control tanks can be located either near the submarine's center of gravity, or separated along the submarine body to prevent affecting trim.
When submerged, the water pressure on submarine's hull can reach for steel submarines and up to for titanium submarines like
KomsomoletsK-278 Komsomolets was the only Project 685 Плавник nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Soviet Navy...
, while interior pressure remains relatively unchanged. This difference results in hull compression, which decreases displacement. Water density also increases with depth, as the
salinitySalinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
and pressure are higher, but this incompletely compensates for hull compression, so buoyancy decreases as depth increases. A submerged submarine is in an unstable equilibrium, having a tendency to either fall or float to the surface. Keeping a constant depth requires continual operation of either the depth control tanks or control surfaces.
Submarines in a neutral buoyancy condition are not intrinsically trim-stable. To maintain desired trim, submarines use forward and aft trim tanks. Pumps can move water between these, changing weight distribution, creating a moment pointing the sub up or down. A similar system is sometimes used to maintain stability.
The hydrostatic effect of variable ballast tanks is not the only way to control the submarine underwater. Hydrodynamic maneuvering is done by several surfaces, which can be moved to create hydrodynamic forces when a submarine moves at sufficient speed. The stern planes, located near the propeller and normally horizontal, serve the same purpose as the trim tanks, controlling the trim, and are commonly used, while other control surfaces may not be present on many submarines. The fairwater planes on the sail and/or bow planes on the main body, both also horizontal, are closer to the centre of gravity, and are used to control depth with less effect on the trim.
When a submarine performs an emergency surfacing, all depth and trim methods are used simultaneously, together with propelling the boat upwards. Such surfacing is very quick, so the sub may even partially jump out of the water, potentially damaging submarine systems.
Overview
Modern submarines are cigar-shaped. This design, visible in early submarines (see below) is sometimes called a "
teardrop hullA teardrop hull is a submarine hull design which emphasizes hydrodynamic flow above all other factors. Benefits over previous types include increased underwater speed and a smaller acoustic signature, making detection by sonar more difficult...
". It reduces the hydrodynamic
dragIn fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces that oppose the relative motion of an object through a fluid . Drag forces act in a direction opposite to the oncoming flow velocity...
when submerged, but decreases the sea-keeping capabilities and increases drag while surfaced. Since the limitations of the propulsion systems of early submarines forced them to operate surfaced most of the time, their hull designs were a compromise. Because of the slow submerged speeds of those subs, usually well below 10
ktThe knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, which is equal to exactly 1.852 km/h and approximately 1.151 mph. The abbreviation kn is preferred by American and Canadian maritime authorities, and by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; however, the...
(18 km/h), the increased drag for underwater travel was acceptable. Late in World War II, when technology allowed faster and longer submerged operation and increased aircraft surveillance forced submarines to stay submerged, hull designs became teardrop shaped again to reduce drag and noise. On modern military submarines the outer hull is covered with a layer of sound-absorbing rubber, or
anechoic platingAnechoic tiles are rubber or Sorbothane-like tiles containing thousands of tiny voids, applied to the outer hulls of military ships and submarines, as well as anechoic chambers...
, to reduce detection.
The occupied pressure hulls of deep diving submarines such as
DSV AlvinAlvin is a 16-ton, manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The craft was built by General Mills' Electronics Group in the same factory used to manufacture breakfast...
are spherical instead of cylindrical. This allows a more even distribution of stress at the great depth. A titanium frame is usually affixed to the pressure hull, providing attachment for ballast and trim systems, scientific instrumentation, battery packs,
syntactic flotation foamSyntactic foams are composite materials synthesized by filling a metal, polymer or ceramic matrix with hollow particles called microballoons. The presence of hollow particles results in lower density, higher strength, a lower coefficient of thermal expansion, and, in some cases, radar or sonar...
, and lighting.
A raised tower on top of a submarine accommodates the
periscopeA periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form, it is a tube in each end of which are mirrors set parallel to each other at 45 degree angle....
and electronics masts, which can include radio,
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
,
electronic warfareElectronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum or to attack the enemy. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to, the EM spectrum...
, and other systems including the snorkel mast. In many early classes of submarines (see history), the Control Room, or "Conn", was located inside this tower, which was known as the "
conning towerA conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman...
". Since then, the Conn has been located within the hull of the submarine, and the tower is now called the "sail". The Conn is distinct from the "bridge", a small open platform in the top of the sail, used for observation during surface operation.
"Bathtubs" are related to conning towers but are used on smaller submarines. The bathtub is a metal cylinder surrounding the hatch that prevents waves from breaking directly into the cabin. It is needed because surfaced submarines have limited
freeboardIn sailing and boating, freeboardmeans the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship...
, that is, they lie low in the water. Bathtubs help prevent swamping the vessel.
Single / double hull
Modern submarines and submersibles, as well as the oldest ones, usually have a single hull. Large submarines generally have an additional hull or hull sections outside. This external hull, which actually forms the shape of submarine, is called the outer hull (casing in the Royal Navy) or light hull, as it does not have to withstand a pressure difference. Inside the outer hull there is a strong hull, or pressure hull, which withstands sea pressure and has normal atmospheric pressure inside.
As early as World War I, it was realized that the optimal shape for withstanding pressure conflicted with the optimal shape for seakeeping and minimal drag, and construction difficulties further complicated the problem. This was solved either by a compromise shape, or by using two hulls; internal for holding pressure, and external for optimal shape. Until the end of World War II, most submarines had an additional partial cover on the top, bow and stern, built of thinner metal, which was flooded when submerged. Germany went further with the Type XXI, the general predecessor of modern submarines, in which the pressure hull was fully enclosed inside the light hull, but optimised for submerged navigation, unlike earlier designs that were optimised for surface operation.
After World War II, approaches split. The Soviet Union changed its designs, basing them on German developments. All post-WWII heavy Soviet and Russian submarines are built with a
double hullA double hull is a ship hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is somewhat further into the ship, perhaps a few feet, which...
structure. American and most other Western submarines switched to a primarily single-hull approach. They still have light hull sections in the bow and stern, which house main ballast tanks and provide a hydrodynamically optimized shape, but the main cylindrical hull section has only a single plating layer. The double hulls are being considered for future submarines in the United States to improve payload capacity, stealth and range.
Pressure hull
The pressure hull is generally constructed of thick high strength steel with a complex structure and high strength reserve, and is separated with watertight
bulkheadsA bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...
into several
compartmentsCompartmentalization in structures, such as land-based buildings, traffic tunnels, ships, aerospace vehicles, or submarines, is the fundamental basis and aim of passive fire protection....
. There are also examples of more than two hulls in a submarine, like the
Typhoon classThe Typhoon class submarine is a type of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. With a maximum displacement of 33,800 tons, the Typhoons are the largest class of submarine ever built, large to accommodate decent living faculities for the crew, when the...
, which has two main pressure hulls and three smaller ones for control room, torpedoes and steering gear, with the missile launch system between the main hulls.
The
dive depthA submarine's depth ratings are primary design parameters and measures of its ability. The depths to which submarines can dive are limited by the strengths of their hulls...
cannot be increased easily. Simply making the hull thicker increases the weight and requires reduction of onboard equipment weight, ultimately resulting in a
bathyscapheA bathyscaphe is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere, but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable, as in the classic bathysphere design....
. This is acceptable for civilian research submersibles, but not military submarines.
WWI submarines had hulls of carbon steel, with a maximum depth. During WW II, high-strength
alloyed steelAn alloy is a partial or complete solid solution of one or more elements in a metallic matrix. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may be homogeneous in distribution depending on thermal history...
was introduced, allowing depths. High-strength alloy steel remains the primary material for submarines today, with depths, which cannot be exceeded on a military submarine without design compromises. To exceed that limit, a few submarines were built with
titaniumTitanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Sometimes called the “space age metal”, it has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color.Titanium can be alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium, molybdenum, among other...
hulls. Titanium can be stronger than steel, lighter, and is not
ferromagneticFerromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets and/or exhibit strong interactions with magnets; it is responsible for most phenomena of magnetism encountered in everyday life...
, important for stealth. Titanium submarines were built by the Soviet Union, which developed specialized high-strength alloys. It has produced several types of titanium submarines. Titanium alloys allow a major increase in depth, but other systems need to be redesigned to cope, so test depth was limited to for K-278 Komsomolets, the deepest-diving combat submarine. An
Alfa class submarineThe Soviet Union/Russian Navy Project 705 was a submarine class of hunter/killer nuclear powered vessels . The class is also known by the NATO reporting name of Alfa...
may have successfully operated at , though continuous operation at such depths would produce excessive stress on many submarine systems. Titanium does not flex as readily as steel, and may become brittle during many dive cycles. Despite its benefits, the high cost of titanium construction led to the abandonment of titanium submarine construction as the Cold War ended.
Deep diving civilian submarines have used thick
acrylicAcrylic may refer to:* chemical compounds that contain the acryl group derived from acrylic acid* Acrylic fiber, a synthetic polymer fiber that contains at least 85% acrylonitrile...
pressure hulls. The deepest deep diving submarine to date is the Shinkai, which can dive to about .
The task of building a pressure hull is very difficult, as it must withstand pressures up to that of its required diving depth. When the hull is perfectly round in cross-section, the pressure is evenly distributed, and causes only hull compression. If the shape is not perfect, the hull is bent, with several points heavily strained. Inevitable minor deviations are resisted by stiffener rings, but even a one inch (25 mm) deviation from roundness results in over 30 percent decrease of maximal hydrostatic load and consequently dive depth. The hull must therefore be constructed with high precision. All hull parts must be welded without defects, and all joints are checked multiple times with different methods, contributing to the high cost of modern submarines. (For example, each
Virginia-class attack submarineThe Virginia class of attack submarines are U.S. subs designed for a broad spectrum of open-ocean and littoral missions...
costs US$2.6
billion1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 10
9....
, over US$200,000 per
tonLong ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the USA by the short ton. It is equal to or of salt water with a...
of displacement.)
Propulsion
Originally, submarines were human propelled. The first mechanically driven submarine was the 1863 French
PlongeurPlongeur was a French submarine launched on 16 April 1863. She was the first submarine in the world to be propelled by mechanical power....
, which used compressed air for propulsion. Anaerobic propulsion was first employed by the Spanish
Ictineo II in 1864, which used a solution of
zincZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
, manganese dioxide, and
potassium chloratePotassium chlorate is a compound containing potassium, chlorine and oxygen, with the molecular formula KClO
3. In pure form, it is a white crystalline substance. It is the most common chlorate in industrial use, and is usually present in well-stocked laboratories...
to generate sufficient heat to power a steam engine, while also providing
oxygenOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
for the crew. A similar system was not employed again until 1940 when the German Navy tested a
hydrogen peroxideHydrogen peroxide is a very pale blue liquid, slightly more viscous than water, that appears colorless in dilute solution. It is a weak acid, has strong oxidizing properties, and is a powerful bleaching agent. It is used as a disinfectant, antiseptic, oxidizer, and in rocketry as a propellant...
-based system, the
WalterHellmuth Walter was a German engineer who pioneered research into rocket engines and gas turbines...
turbineA turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid or air flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum, with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they...
, on the experimental V-80 submarine and later on the naval
U-791 and type XVII submarines.
Until the advent of
nuclear marine propulsionNuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship powered by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships .-Power plants:...
, most 20th century submarines used batteries for running underwater and
gasolineGasoline or petrol is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture, primarily used as fuel in internal combustion engines...
(petrol) or
dieselA diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression...
engines on the surface, and for battery recharging. Early submarines used gasoline, but this quickly gave way to
kerosene (paraffin)Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
, then diesel, because of reduced flammability. Diesel-electric became the standard means of propulsion. The diesel or gasoline engine and the electric motor, separated by clutches, were initially on the same shaft driving the propeller. This allowed the engine to drive the electric motor as a generator to recharge the batteries and also propel the submarine. The clutch between the motor and the engine would be disengaged when the submarine dove, so that the motor could drive the propeller. The motor could have multiple armatures on the shaft, which could be electrically coupled in series for slow speed and in parallel for high speed. (These connections were called "group down" and "group up", respectively.)
Diesel-electric transmission
Early submarines used a direct mechanical connection between the engine and propeller, switching between diesel engines for surface running, and electric motors for submerged propulsion.
In 1928 the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
's Bureau of Engineering proposed a diesel-electric transmission; instead of driving the propeller directly while running on the surface, the submarine's diesel would drive a generator which could either charge the submarine's batteries or drive the electric motor. This meant that motor speed was independent of the diesel engine's speed, and the diesel could run at an optimum and non-critical speed, while one or more of the diesel engines could be shut down for maintenance while the submarine continued to run using battery power. The concept was pioneered in 1929 in the
S-class submarinesThe United States' S-class submarines, often simply called S-boats , were the first class of submarines built to a United States Navy design....
S-3USS S-3 was the prototype of the "Government-type" S-class submarines of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 29 August 1917 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 21 December 1918 sponsored by Mrs. William L...
,
S-6USS S-6 was a second-group S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 29 January 1918 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 23 December 1919 sponsored by Miss Eleanor Westcott; and commissioned on 17 May 1920 with Lieutenant Commander George B...
, and
S-7USS S-7 was a second-group S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 29 January 1918 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 5 February 1920 sponsored by Mrs. Henry L...
to test the concept. No other navy adopted the system before 1945, apart from the Royal Navy's
British U class submarineThe British U class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War...
s, though some submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy used separate diesel generators for low speed running.
Other advantages of such an arrangement were that a submarine could travel slowly with the engines at full power to recharge the batteries quickly, reducing time on the surface or on
snorkelA submarine snorkel is a device that allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. It was invented by the Dutch shortly before World War II and copied by the Germans during the war for use by U-Boats...
. It was then possible to
insulateSoundproofing is any means of reducing the sound pressure with respect to a specified sound source and receptor . There are several basic approaches to reducing sound: increasing the distance between source and receiver, using noise barriers to block or absorb the energy of the sound waves, using...
the noisy diesel engines from the pressure hull, making the submarine quieter. Additionally, diesel-electric transmissions were more compact.
Air-independent propulsion
During the Second World War,
German Type XXI submarineType XXI U-boats, also known as "Elektroboote", were the first submarines designed to operate entirely submerged, rather than as surface ships that could submerge as a temporary means to escape detection or launch an attack...
s were designed to carry hydrogen peroxide for long-term, fast air-independent propulsion, but were ultimately built with very large batteries instead. At the end of the War, the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and Russians experimented with hydrogen peroxide/kerosene (paraffin) engines which could be used surfaced and submerged. The results were not encouraging; although the Russians deployed a class of submarines with this engine type (codenamed
QuebecThe Quebec-class submarine was the NATO reporting name of the Soviet Project 615 submarine class, a small coastal attack submarine of the late 1950s.-Background:...
by NATO), they were considered unsuccessful.
Today several navies use air-independent propulsion. Notably
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
uses
Stirling technologyA Stirling engine is a heat engine that operates by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gas, the working fluid, at different temperature levels such that there is a net conversion of heat energy to mechanical work....
on the
Gotland classThe Gotland class attack submarines of the Swedish Navy are modern diesel-electric submarines. They are the first submarines in the world to feature a Stirling engine air-independent propulsion system, which extends their underwater endurance from a few days to weeks...
and
Södermanland classThe Swedish Södermanland class of diesel-electric submarines consist of the HMS Södermanland and HMS Östergötland. These two submarines were originally launched as Västergötland class submarines in 1987 and 1990, and have been relaunched as a new class after extensive modernization 2003 and 2004 by...
submarines. The Stirling engine is heated by burning diesel fuel with
liquid oxygenLiquid oxygen is a form of the element oxygen. It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic and can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horse shoe magnet...
from cryogenic tanks. A newer development in air-independent propulsion is
hydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
fuel cells, first used on the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
Type 212 submarineThe German Type 212 is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG for the German Navy. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion system using Siemens proton exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cells...
, with nine 34 kW or two 120 kW cells and soon to be used in the new
SpanishThe Spanish Navy is the maritime arm of the Spanish Military, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path from the Far East to America across the...
S-80 classThe submarines of the Class S-80 of the Spanish Navy are a series of high-tech submarines. Initially there are four units, with expansion to six, two of which are already in production by the Spanish company Navantia factory in Cartagena, and whose fundamental characteristics are A new propulsion...
submarines.
Nuclear power
Steam power was resurrected in the 1950s with a nuclear-powered steam turbine driving a generator. By eliminating the need for atmospheric oxygen, the length of time that a modern submarine could remain submerged was limited only by its food stores, as breathing air was recycled and fresh water
distilledDistillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
from seawater. Nuclear-powered submarines have a relatively small battery and diesel engine/generator powerplant for emergency use if the reactors must be shut down.
Nuclear power is now used in all large submarines, but due to the high cost and large size of nuclear reactors, smaller submarines still use diesel-electric propulsion. The ratio of larger to smaller submarines depends on strategic needs. The US Navy,
French NavyThe French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military...
, and the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
operate only nuclear submarines, which is explained by the need for distant operations. Other major operators rely on a mix of nuclear submarines for strategic purposes and diesel-electric submarines for defence. Most fleets have no nuclear submarines, due to the limited availability of nuclear power and submarine technology. Diesel-electric submarines have a stealth advantage over their nuclear counterparts. Nuclear submarines generate noise from coolant pumps and turbo-machinery needed to operate the reactor, even at low power levels. Some nuclear submarines such as the American
Ohio classThe Ohio class is a class of nuclear-powered submarines used by the United States Navy. The United States has 18 Ohio class submarines:...
do not have coolant pumps etc. in the reactors, and are quieter than electric subs. A conventional submarine operating on batteries is almost completely silent, the only noise coming from the shaft bearings, propeller, and flow noise around the hull, all of which stops when the sub hovers in mid water to listen. Commercial submarines usually rely only on batteries, since they never operate independently of a mother ship.
Alternative propulsion
Oil-fired steam turbines powered the British
"K" class submarinesThe K class submarines were a class of steam-propelled submarines of the Royal Navy designed in 1913. Intended as large, fast vessels which had the endurance and speed to operate with the battle fleet, they gained notoriety, and the nickname of Kalamity class, for being involved in many accidents....
, built during the
first World WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
(and later), to give them the surface speed to keep up with battle fleet. The "K" class subs were not very successful, however.
Toward the end of the 20th century, some submarines, such as the British Vanguard class, began to be fitted with
pump-jetA pump-jet or water jet is a marine system that creates a jet of water for propulsion. The mechanical arrangement may be a ducted propeller with nozzle, or a centrifugal pump and nozzle...
propulsors instead of propellers. Although these are heavier, more expensive, and less efficient than a propeller, they are significantly quieter, giving an important tactical advantage.
Magnetohydrodynamic driveA magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD propulsor, is a method for propelling seagoing vessels using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, using magnetohydrodynamics.- Principle :...
(MHD) was portrayed as the operating principle behind the titular submarine's nearly silent propulsion system in the
film adaptationThe Hunt for Red October is a film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Tom Clancy. It was directed by John McTiernan and stars Sean Connery as Captain Marko Ramius and Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan....
of
The Hunt for Red OctoberThe Hunt for Red October is a 1984 novel by Tom Clancy. The story follows the intertwined adventures of Soviet submarine captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius and CIA analyst Jack Patrick Ryan.The novel was originally published by the U.S...
. However, in the novel, the Red October did not use MHD. Although experimental surface ships have used this system, speeds have been below expectations. In addition, the drive system can induce bubble formation, compromising stealth, and the low efficiency requires high powered reactors. These factors make it unlikely for military usage.
Armament
The success of the submarine is inextricably linked to the development of the
torpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target...
, invented by
Robert WhiteheadRobert Whitehead was an English engineer. He was born the son of a cotton-bleacher, in Bolton, England.He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866...
in 1866. His invention is essentially the same now as it was 140 years ago. Only with self propelled torpedoes could the submarine make the leap from novelty to a weapon of war. Until the perfection of the
guided torpedoAn acoustic torpedo is a torpedo that aims itself by listening for characteristic sounds of its target or by searching for it using sonar. Acoustic torpedoes are usually designed for medium-range use, and often fired from a submarine....
, multiple "straight running" torpedoes were required to attack a target. With at most 20 to 25 torpedoes stored onboard, the number of attacks was limited. To increase combat endurance most WWI submarines functioned as submersible gunboats, using their deck guns against unarmed targets, and diving to escape and engage enemy warships. The importance of guns encouraged the development of the unsuccessful
Submarine Cruiser such as the French
SurcoufThe Surcouf was a French submarine ordered to be built in December 1927, launched 18 October 1929, and commissioned in May 1934. Surcouf, named after the French privateer Robert Surcouf, was the largest submarine ever built, until being surpassed by the Japanese I-400...
and the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
's
X1for the midget submarine of the Second World War, see X class submarineHM Submarine X1 was conceived and designed as a submersible commerce raider for the Royal Navy, and at the time of her launching was the largest submarine in the world. The idea of a submarine cruiser had been mooted as early as...
and
M classThe British Royal Navy M class submarines were a small class of diesel electric submarine built during World War I. The unique feature of the class was a 12 inch gun mounted in a turret forward of the conning tower....
submarines. With the arrival of
ASWAnti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
aircraft, guns became more for defence than attack. A more practical method of increasing combat endurance was the external torpedo tube, loaded only in port.
The ability of submarines to approach enemy harbours covertly led to their use as minelayers. Minelaying submarines of WWI and WWII were specially built for that purpose. Modern submarine-laid
minesA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of or contact with an enemy ship...
, such as the British Mark 6 Sea Urchin, are designed to be deployed by a submarine's torpedo tubes.
After WWII, both the US and the USSR experimented with submarine launched
cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
s such as the
SSM-N-8 RegulusThe SSM-N-8A Regulus cruise missile was the nuclear deterrent weapon employed by the United States Navy from 1955 to 1964.-Design and development:...
and P-5 Pyatyorka. Such missiles required the submarine to surface to fire its missiles. They were the forerunners of modern submarine launched cruise missiles, which can be fired from the torpedo tubes of submerged submarines, for example the US
BGM-109 TomahawkThe Tomahawk Land Attack Missile is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile. Introduced by General Dynamics in the 1970s, it was designed as a medium- to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a submerged submarine. It has been improved several times and, by way of...
and Russian RPK-2 Viyuga. Ballistic missiles can also be fired from a submarine's torpedo tubes, for example missiles such as the anti-submarine SUBROC, and versions of surface to surface
anti-ship missileAnti-ship missiles are guided missiles designed for use against ships. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming type and use a combination of inertial guidance and radar homing...
s such as the
ExocetThe Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, and airplanes. Several hundred were fired in combat during the 1980s.-Etymology:The missile's name was given by M...
and
HarpoonThe Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system, developed and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas . In 2004, Boeing delivered the 7,000th Harpoon unit since the weapon's introduction in 1977...
, encapsulated for submarine launch. With internal volume as limited as ever and the desire to carry heavier warloads, the idea of the external launch tube was revived, usually for encapsulated missiles, with such tubes being placed between the internal pressure and outer streamlined hulls.
The strategic mission of the SSM-N-8 and the P-5 were taken up by
submarine-launched ballistic missileSubmarine-launched ballistic missile is a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead that can be launched from submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles each of which carries a warhead and allows a single launched missile to...
beginning with the US Navy's
PolarisThe Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fuel nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile built during the Cold War by Lockheed Corporation of California for the United States Navy. It was designed to be used as part of the Navy's contribution to the United States arsenal of nuclear...
missile, and subsequently the Poseidon and Trident missiles.
Germany is working on the short-range
IDAS (missile)For other uses, see Idas .IDAS is a short-range missile currently being developed for the new Type 212 submarine class of the German Navy....
which is lauched from a torpedo tube and can be used against ASW helicopters as well as surface ships and coastal targets.
Sensors
A submarine will have a variety of sensors determined by its missions. Modern military submarines rely almost entirely on a suite of passive and active
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water...
s to find their prey. Active sonar relies on an audible "ping" to generate echoes to reveal objects around the submarine. Active systems are rarely used, as doing so reveals the sub's presence. Passive sonar is a set of sensitive hydrophones set into the hull or trailed in a towed array, generally several hundred feet long. The towed array is the mainstay of NATO submarine detection systems, as it reduces the flow noise heard by operators. Hull mounted sonar is employed to back up the towed array, and in confined waters where a towed array could be fouled by obstacles.
Submarines also carry radar equipment for detection of surface ships and aircraft. Sub captains are more likely to use radar detection gear rather than active radar to detect targets, as radar can be detected far beyond its own return range, revealing the submarine. Periscopes are rarely used, except for position fixes and to verify a contact's identity.
Civilian submarines, such as the
DSV AlvinAlvin is a 16-ton, manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The craft was built by General Mills' Electronics Group in the same factory used to manufacture breakfast...
or the
Russian Mir submersiblesMir is a self-propelled Deep Submergence Vehicle. The project was initially developed by the USSR Academy of Sciences along with Design Bureau Lazurith. Later two vehicles were ordered from Finland...
, rely on small active sonar sets and viewing ports to navigate. Sunlight does not penetrate below about underwater, so high intensity lights are used to illuminate the viewing area.
Navigation
Early submarines had few navigation aids, but modern subs have a variety of navigation systems. Modern military submarines use an inertial guidance system for navigation while submerged, but drift error unavoidably builds up over time. To counter this, the
Global Positioning SystemThe Global Positioning System is a U.S. space-based global navigation satellite system. It provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near the Earth.GPS is made up of three parts: between 24...
will occasionally be used to obtain an accurate position. The
periscopeA periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form, it is a tube in each end of which are mirrors set parallel to each other at 45 degree angle....
- a retractable tube with
prismIn optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in colloquial use...
s allowing a view to the surface - is only used occasionally in modern submarines, since the range of visibility is short. The
Virginia-class submarinesThe Virginia class of attack submarines are U.S. subs designed for a broad spectrum of open-ocean and littoral missions...
and
Astute Class submarineThe Astute class submarines are the next-generation nuclear fleet submarines of the Royal Navy. When completed, the boats will set a new standard for the Royal Navy in terms of weapons load, improved communications facilities, stealth and comfort for the crew...
s have
photonics mastA photonics mast is a sensor similar in concept to a submarine periscope, except that it doesn't require a periscope tube thus freeing design space duringconstruction and limiting risks of water leakage in the event of damage...
s rather than hull-penetrating optical periscopes. These masts must still be hoisted above the surface, and employ electronic sensors for visible light, infrared, laser range-finding, and electromagnetic surveillance.
Communication
Military submarines have several systems for communicating with distant command centers or other ships. One is VLF radio, which can reach a submarine either on the surface or submerged to a fairly shallow depth, usually less than . ELF frequencies can reach a submarine at much greater depths, but have a very low bandwidth and are generally used to call a submerged sub to a shallower depth where VLF signals can reach. A submarine also has the option of floating a long, buoyant wire to a shallower depth, allowing VLF transmissions to be made by a deeply submerged boat.
By extending a radio mast, a submarine can also use a "burst transmission" technique. A burst transmission takes only a fraction of a second, minimizing a submarine's risk of detection.
To communicate with other submarines, a system known as Gertrude is used. Gertrude is basically a sonar telephone. Voice communication from one submarine is transmitted by low power speakers into the water, where it is detected by passive sonars on the receiving submarine. The range of this system is probably very short, and using it radiates sound into the water, which can be heard by the enemy.
Civilian submarines can use similar, albeit less powerful systems to communicate with support ships or other submersibles in the area.
Command and control
All submarines need facilities to control their motion. Military submarines also need facilities to operate their sensors and weapons.
Crew
A typical nuclear submarine has a crew of over 80. Non-nuclear boats typically have fewer than half as many. The conditions on a submarine can be difficult because crewmembers must work in isolation for long periods of time, without family contact. Submarines normally maintain
radio silenceIn telecommunications, radio silence is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area stop transmitting.The radio stations include anything capable of transmitting a radio signal. Radio silence generally applies to the military, where any radio transmission may reveal troop...
to avoid detection. Operating a submarine is dangerous, even in peacetime, and submarines have been lost in accidents.
Women as part of crew
Most navies prohibited women from serving on submarines, even after they had been permitted to serve on surface warships. The
Royal Norwegian NavyThe Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. , the RNoN consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 3 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 6 corvettes, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection...
became the first navy to allow female crew on its submarines in 1985. The
Royal Danish NavyThe Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for the maritime defence and sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese territorial waters...
allowed for female submariners in 1988. Others followed suit including the
Swedish NavyThe Swedish Navy is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet – as well as marine units, the so-called Amphibious Corps ....
(1989), the
Royal Australian NavyThe Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following federation of the Australian Colonies in 1901, the former colonial navies merged to become the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
(1998) and
Canadian NavyCanadian Forces Maritime Command , also known as the Canadian Navy, is the maritime force of the Canadian Forces. While equal in rank and position, The Chief of the Maritime Staff takes precedence over the Chiefs of the Land and Air Staffs following the tradition of the Royal Navy.MARCOM is the...
(2002). In 1995,
Solveig KreySolveig Krey is the first female commanding officer of a submarine in the world. She took command of KNM Kobben, the lead ship of her class of Royal Norwegian Navy submarines, on 11 September 1995....
of the
Royal Norwegian NavyThe Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. , the RNoN consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 3 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 6 corvettes, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection...
became the first female officer to assume command on a military submarine, the
HNoMS KobbenThe Kobben class or Type 207 is a version of the German Type 205 submarine customized for use by the Royal Norwegian Navy.- History :...
.
The British Royal Navy also does not permit women to serve on its submarines because of "medical concerns for the safety of the foetus and hence its mother" due to the potentially compromised air quality onboard submarines.
Women have served on U.S. Navy surface ships since 1993 but do not serve on submarines. The Navy only allows three exceptions for women being on board military submarines: 1) Female civilian technicians for a few days at most; 2) Women
midshipmenA midshipman is an officer cadet, or alternatively a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies.The word derives from the area aboard a ship, amidships, where these officers were berthed...
on an overnight during summer training for both Navy ROTC and
Naval AcademyThe United States Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, United States, that educates and commissions officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Academy often is referred to simply as "Annapolis". It is also called "The Academy", "The Boat School", or "Canoe...
; 3) Family members for one-day dependent cruises.
Both the U.S. and British navies operate nuclear-powered submarines which deploy for periods of six months or longer, whereas other navies which permit women on submarines operate conventionally powered submarines, which deploy for much shorter periods, usually only for one or two months. No nation using nuclear submarines currently permits women to serve onboard them.
Removing the ban in the U.S. Navy has been put to
congressional lawmakersThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
by
Joint Chiefs ChairmanThe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States armed forces, and the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense...
Adm.
Michael MullenAdmiral Michael Glenn "Mike" Mullen, USN , is the 17
th and current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . Mullen previously served as the Navy's 28
th Chief of Naval Operations from July 22, 2005 to September 29, 2007. His other four-star assignments include being the...
, following a review by
Navy SecretaryThe United States Secretary of the Navy is the civilian head of the Department of the Navy. The position was a member of the President's Cabinet until 1947, when the Navy, Army, and newly created Air Force were placed in the Department of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy was placed under the...
Ray MabusRaymond Edwin "Ray" Mabus, Jr. is 75th United States Secretary of the Navy. Mabus served as Governor of the U.S. state of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992 and as United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996...
and
Chief of Naval OperationsThe Chief of Naval Operations is the highest ranking officer in the United States Navy and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The CNO reports directly to the Secretary of the Navy for the command, utilization of resources and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of...
Adm.
Gary RougheadAdmiral Gary Roughead, USN is the 29th and current Chief of Naval Operations. He previously served as Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command from May 17, 2007 to September 29, 2007. Prior to that he served as the 31st Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet from July 8, 2005 to May 8, 2007...
.
Life support systems
With
nuclear powerA nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate.The most significant use of nuclear reactors is as an energy source for the generation of electrical power and for the power in some ships...
, submarines can remain submerged for months at a time. Diesel submarines must periodically resurface or
snorkelA submarine snorkel is a device that allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. It was invented by the Dutch shortly before World War II and copied by the Germans during the war for use by U-Boats...
to recharge their batteries. Most modern military submarines generate breathing
oxygenOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
by
electrolysisIn chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using an electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially highly important as a stage in the separation of elements from naturally-occurring sources such as ores using an electrolytic...
of water. Atmosphere control equipment includes a
CO2Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state...
scrubber, which uses an
amineAmines are organic compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are derivatives of ammonia, wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituent such as an alkyl or aryl group. Important amines include amino acids, biogenic amines,...
absorbent to remove the gas from air and diffuse it into waste pumped overboard. A machine that uses a catalyst to convert
carbon monoxideCarbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, yet very toxic to humans. It consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, connected by a covalent double bond and a dative covalent bond...
into carbon dioxide (removed by the CO
2 scrubber) and bonds
hydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
produced from the ship's storage battery with oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water, is also used. An atmosphere monitoring system samples the air from different areas of the ship for
nitrogenNitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere.Many industrially important...
, oxygen, hydrogen,
R-12Dichlorodifluoromethane , usually sold under the brand name Freon-12, is a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane , used as a refrigerant and aerosol spray propellant. Complying with the Montreal Protocol, its manufacture was banned in the United States along with many other countries in 1994 due to...
and
R-1141,2-Dichlorotetrafluoroethane, or R-114, is a chlorofluorocarbon with the molecular formula ClF2CCF2Cl. Its primary use has been as a refrigerant. It is a non-flammable gas with a sweetish, chloroform-like odor with critical point at 145.6 °C and 3.26 MPa. When pressurized...
refrigerants, carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxideCarbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas, yet very toxic to humans. It consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, connected by a covalent double bond and a dative covalent bond...
, and other gases. Poisonous gases are removed, and oxygen is replenished by use of an oxygen bank located in a main ballast tank. Some heavier submarines have two oxygen bleed stations (forward and aft). The oxygen in the air is sometimes kept a few percent less than atmospheric concentration to reduce fire danger.
Fresh water is produced by either an evaporator or a
reverse osmosisReverse osmosis is similar to the membrane filtration treatment process. However there are key differences between reverse osmosis and filtration...
unit. The primary use for fresh water is to provide feed water for the reactor and steam propulsion plants. It is also available for showers, sinks, cooking and cleaning once propulsion plant needs have been met. Seawater is used to flush toilets, and the resulting "
black waterBlackwater is a relatively recent term used to describe wastewater containing fecal matter and urine. It is also known as brown water, foul water, or sewage. It is distinct from greywater or sullage, the residues of washing processes.-In practice:...
" is stored in a sanitary tank until it is blown overboard using pressurized air or pumped overboard by using a special sanitary pump. The method for blowing sanitaries overboard is difficult to operate, and the German Type VIIC boat
U-1206U-1206 or Unterseeboot 1206 was a German Type VIIC submarine of the Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on June 12, 1943 at F. Schichau GmbH in Danzig and went into service on March 16, 1944. The boats emblem was a white Stork on a black shield with green beak and legs.-Service...
was lost with casualties because of a mistake with the toilet. Water from showers and sinks is stored separately in "
gray waterGreywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as dish washing, laundry and bathing. Greywater comprises 50-80% of residential wastewater generated from all of the house's sanitation equipment except for the toilets. Water from the toilets is designated sewage or blackwater to...
" tanks, which are pumped overboard using the drain pump.
Trash on modern large submarines is usually disposed of using a tube called a Trash Disposal Unit (TDU), where it is compacted into a galvanised steel can. At the bottom of the TDU is a large ball valve. An ice plug is set on top of the ball valve to protect it, the cans atop the ice plug. The top breech door is shut, and the TDU is flooded and equalised with sea pressure, the ball valve is opened and the cans fall out assisted by scrap iron weights in the cans. The TDU is also flushed with seawater to ensure it is completely empty and the ball valve is clear before shutting the valve.
History of submarines
Early history of submarines and the first submersibles
The first submersible with reliable information on its construction was built in 1620 by
Cornelius Jacobszoon DrebbelCornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel was the Dutch inventor of the first navigable submarine in 1620...
, a Dutchman in the service of
James I of EnglandJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
. It was created to the standards of the design outlined by English mathematician
William BourneWilliam Bourne was an English mathematician, innkeeper and former Royal Navy gunner who created an idea for an early submarine and wrote important navigational manuals...
. It was propelled by means of oars. The precise nature of the submarine type is a matter of some controversy; some claim that it was merely a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the Thames between 1620 and 1624. In 2002 a two-person version of Bourne's design was built for the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
TV programme
Building the Impossible by
Mark EdwardsMark Edwards is a traditional boatbuilder based at Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, England. He has constructed several significant reproductions of vintage boats....
, and successfully rowed under water at
Dorney LakeDorney Lake is a purpose built rowing lake in the United Kingdom. It is located at grid reference in the small village of Dorney, Buckinghamshire and near the towns of Windsor and Eton, both in Berkshire, close to the River Thames. The lake is privately owned and financed by Eton College who have...
,
EtonEton is a town in Berkshire, England, lying on the opposite bank of the River Thames to Windsor and connected to it by Windsor Bridge. It was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Berkshire in 1974...
.
Though the first submersible vehicles were tools for exploring under water, it did not take long for inventors to recognize their military potential. The strategic advantages of submarines were set out by Bishop
John WilkinsJohn Wilkins was an English clergyman and author. He was founder and first secretary of the Royal Society in 1660 and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
of
ChesterChester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, England, in
Mathematicall Magick in 1648:
- Tis private: a man may thus go to any coast in the world invisibly, without discovery or prevented in his journey.
- Tis safe, from the uncertainty of Tides, and the violence of Tempests, which do never move the sea above five or six paces deep. From Pirates and Robbers which do so infest other voyages; from ice and great frost, which do so much endanger the passages towards the Poles.
- It may be of great advantages against a Navy of enemies, who by this may be undermined in the water and blown up.
- It may be of special use for the relief of any place besieged by water, to convey unto them invisible supplies; and so likewise for the surprisal of any place that is accessible by water.
- It may be of unspeakable benefit for submarine experiments.
The first military submarines
The first military submarine was
TurtleTurtle was the world's first submarine used in battle. It was invented in Connecticut in 1775 by American Patriot David Bushnell as a means of attaching explosive charges to ships in a harbor...
(1775), a hand-powered egg-shaped device designed by the American
David BushnellDavid Bushnell of Saybrook, Connecticut, was an American inventor during the Revolutionary War. He is credited with creating the first submarine ever used in combat, while studying at Yale University in 1775. He called it the Turtle because of its look in the water...
to accommodate a single person. It was the first verified submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use screws for propulsion. During the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
,
Turtle (operated by Sgt. Ezra Lee, Continental Army) tried and failed to sink the British warship
HMS EagleHMS Eagle was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 May 1774 at Rotherhithe.On 7 September 1776, the experimental American submarine Turtle, under the guidance of Army volunteer Sergeant Ezra Lee, attacked HMS Eagle, which was moored off what is today called Liberty...
, flagship of the blockaders in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
harbor on September 7, 1776.
In 1800, France built a human-powered submarine designed by American
Robert FultonRobert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat. He also designed a new type of steam warship...
, the
Nautilus. The French eventually gave up on the experiment in 1804, as did the British when they later considered Fulton's submarine design.
During the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
, in 1814, Silas Halsey lost his life while using a submarine in an unsuccessful attack on a British warship stationed in
New London harborNew London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut.The city is home to Connecticut College, Mitchell...
.
In 1851, a Bavarian artillery corporal,
Wilhelm BauerWilhelm Bauer was the German inventor and engineer, who built several hand-powered submarines.-Biography:...
, took a submarine designed by him called the
Brandtaucher (incendiary-diver) to sea in
KielKiel is the capital and most populous city of the northern German state Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of over 236,000 .Kiel is approximately to the north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore...
Harbour. This submarine was built by
August HowaldtAugust Ferdinand Howaldt was a German engineer and ship builder.-Biography:Born in Braunschweig, the son of the silversmith David Ferdinand Howaldt, with whom he got his first practice working in metal, Howaldt made an apprenticeship in Hamburg and became a practical mechanicus.In 1838 he moved to...
and powered by a
treadwheelA treadwheel is a form of animal engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference , or by a human or animal standing inside it .Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power...
. It sank but the three crew managed to escape. The submarine was raised in 1887 and is on display in a museum in Dresden.
Submarines in the American Civil War
During the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
, the Union was the first to field a submarine. The French-designed
Alligator was the first U.S. Navy sub and the first to feature compressed air (for air supply) and an air filtration system. Initially hand-powered by oars, it was converted after 6 months to a screw propeller powered by a hand crank. With a crew of 20, it was larger than Confederate submarines.
Alligator was 47 feet (14.3 m) long and about 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter. It was lost in a storm off
Cape HatterasCape Hatteras is a cape on the coast of North Carolina. It is the point that protrudes the farthest to the southeast along the northeast-to-southwest line of the Atlantic coast of North America...
on April 1, 1863 with no crew and under tow to its first combat deployment at Charleston.
The
Confederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
fielded several human-powered submarines. The first Confederate submarine was the long
PioneerPioneer was the first of three submarines privately developed and paid for by Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock and Baxter Watson.Hunley, McClintock and Watson built Pioneer in New Orleans, Louisiana...
which sank a target
schoonerA schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being shorter or the same height as the rear masts...
using a towed mine during tests on
Lake PontchartrainLake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest saltwater lake in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana....
, but was not used in combat. It was scuttled after New Orleans was captured and in 1868 was sold for scrap. The
Bayou St. John Confederate SubmarineThe Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine is an early military Submarine built for use by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.-Description:...
was also scuttled without seeing combat, and is now on display at the
Louisiana State MuseumThe Louisiana State Museum , founded in New Orleans in 1906 and still headquartered there, is a complex of National Historic Landmarks housing thousands of artifacts and works of art reflecting Louisiana's legacy of historic events and cultural diversity....
.
The Confederate submarine
H. L. HunleyH. L. Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War, but a large role in naval warfare. The Confederate States Ship Hunley demonstrated both the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare...
(named for one of its financiers,
Horace Lawson HunleyHorace Lawson Hunley , was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was named for him, H. L...
) was intended for attacking the North's ships, which were blockading the South's seaports. The submarine had a long pole with an explosive charge in the bow, called a
spar torpedoA spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to wooden hulls...
. The sub had to approach an enemy vessel, attach an explosive, move away, and then detonate it. The sub was extremely hazardous to operate, and had no air supply other than what was contained inside the main compartment. On two occasions, the sub sank; on the first occasion half the crew died and on the second, the entire eight-man crew (including Hunley himself) drowned. On February 17, 1864
Hunley sank
USS HousatonicUSS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, named for Housatonic River of New England which rises in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and flows southward into Connecticut before emptying into Long Island Sound a little east of Bridgeport, Connecticut.Housatonic was launched...
off Charleston Harbor, the first time a submarine successfully sank another ship, though it sank in the same engagement shortly after signaling its success. Submarines did not have a major impact on the outcome of the war, but did portend their coming importance to naval warfare and increased interest in their use in naval warfare.
South America
The first submarine in South America was the
Hipopotamo, tested in
EcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America that...
on September 18, 1837. It was built by Jose Rodriguez Lavandera, who successfully crossed the
Guayas RiverThe Guayas River is a river in western Ecuador. It gives name to the Guayas Province, and it is the most important river in South America that does not flow into the Atlantic Ocean or any of its seas. Its total length, including the Daule River, is 389 km....
in
GuayaquilGuayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador, as well as that nation's main port. The city is the capital of the Ecuadorian province of Guayas and the seat of the namesake canton....
accompanied by Jose Quevedo. Rodriguez Lavandera enrolled in the Navy in 1823, becoming a Lieutenant by 1830. The
Hipopotamo crossed the Guayas on two more occasions, but it was then abandoned because of lack of funding and interest from the government.
The submarine
FlachFlach was the first submarine designed and built in Chile in 1866. It is currently missing.-History:The Flach was built in 1866 at the request of the Chilean government, by Karl Flach, a German engineer and immigrant...
was commissioned in 1865 by the Chilean government during the war of
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
against
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
(1864-1866). It was built by the German engineer Karl Flach. The submarine sank during tests in
ValparaisoValparaíso is a city in central Chile and one of that country's most important seaports and an increasingly vital cultural center in the hemisphere's Pacific Southwest. The city is the capital of the Region of Valparaíso...
bay on May 3, 1866, with the entire eleven-man crew.
Mechanically-powered submarines (late 19th century)
The first submarine not relying on human power for propulsion was the French
PlongeurPlongeur was a French submarine launched on 16 April 1863. She was the first submarine in the world to be propelled by mechanical power....
, launched in 1863, and using compressed air at 180 psi (1241
kPaThe pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...
).
The first combustion-powered submarine was
Ictineo II, designed in Spain by
Narcís MonturiolNarcís Monturiol Estarriol was a Spanish Catalan engineer, artist and intellectual. He was the inventor of the first combustion engine driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion....
. Originally launched in 1864 as human-powered, propelled by 16 , it was converted to peroxide propulsion and steam in 1867. The 14 meter (46 ft) craft was designed for a crew of two, could dive to 30 metres (96 ft), and demonstrated dives of two hours. On the surface it ran on a steam engine, but underwater such an engine would quickly consume the submarine's oxygen; so Monturiol invented an
air-independent propulsion systemAir-independent propulsion is a term that encompasses technologies which allow a submarine to operate without the need to surface or use a snorkel to access atmospheric oxygen. The term usually excludes the use of nuclear power, and describes augmenting or replacing the diesel-electric propulsion...
. While the air-independent power system drove the screw, the chemical process driving it also released oxygen into the hull for the crew and an auxiliary steam engine. Monturiol's fully functional, double hulled vessels also solved pressure and buoyancy control problems that had bedeviled earlier designs.
In 1870, the French writer
Jules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who helped pioneer the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels A Journey to the Center of the Earth , From the Earth to the Moon , Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea , Around the World in Eighty Days and The Mysterious Island...
published the
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
classic
20,000 Leagues under the SeaTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...
, which concerns the adventures of a maverick inventor in
NautilusThe Nautilus is the fictional submarine featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island . Verne named the Nautilus after Robert Fulton's real-life submarine Nautilus...
, a submarine more advanced than any at the time. The story inspired inventors to build more advanced submarines.
In 1879, the Peruvian government, during the
War of the PacificThe War of the Pacific , occurring from 1879-1884, was a conflict between Chile and the alliance of Bolivia and Peru. Also known as the "Saltpeter War," the war arose from disputes over the control of territory that contained substantial mineral-rich deposits.The conclusion of the conflict...
, commissioned and built the fully operational submarine
Toro SubmarinoThe Toro Submarino was a Peruvian submarine developed during the War of the Pacific. While it was completely operational, the submarine never saw action before the end of the war, when it was scuttled to prevent its capture by Chilean troops.-Development:In 1864, an overseas German civil engineer...
. It never saw military action before being scuttled after the defeat of that country in the war to prevent its capture by the enemy.
The first submarine to be mass-produced was human-powered. It was the submarine of the Polish inventor
Stefan DrzewieckiStefan Drzewiecki was a Polish scientist, journalist, engineer, constructor and inventor, working in Russia and France....
—50 units were built in 1881 for the Russian government. In 1884 the same inventor built an electric-powered submarine.
Discussions between the English clergyman and inventor
George GarrettGeorge William Littler Garrett was a British clergyman and inventor who pioneered submarine design.-Early life:He was born at Moss Side in Manchester, England, the son of an Irish-born Church of England curate...
and the industrially and commercially adept Swede
Thorsten NordenfeltThorsten Nordenfelt , was a Swedish inventor and industrialist.Nordenfelt was born in Örby outside Kinna, Sweden, the son of a colonel. The surname was and is often spelt Nordenfeldt, though Thorsten and his brothers always spelt it Nordenfelt, and the 1881 Census shows it as Nordenfelt...
led to a series of steam-powered submarines. The first was the
Nordenfelt I, a 56 tonne, 19.5 metre (64 ft) vessel similar to Garret's ill-fated
ResurgamResurgam is the name given to two early Victorian submarines designed and built by Reverend George Garrett as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed around ship hulls to defend against attack by torpedo vessels....
(1879), with a range of 240 kilometres (150 mi, 130 nm), armed with a single
torpedoThe modern torpedo is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target...
, in 1885. Like
Resurgam,
Nordenfelt I operated on the surface by steam, then shut down its engine to dive. While submerged the submarine released pressure generated when the engine was running on the surface to provide propulsion for some distance underwater.
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, fearful of the return of the
OttomansThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, purchased it. Nordenfelt then built
Nordenfelt II (
Abdülhamid) in 1886 and
Nordenfelt III (
Abdülmecid) in 1887, a pair of 30 metre (100 ft) submarines with twin
torpedo tubeA torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes in a horizontal direction.There are two main types of torpedo tube:*Those designed to operate below water level, as fitted to submarines and some surface ships...
s, for the Ottoman navy.
Abdülhamid became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo submerged. Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with
Nordenfelt IV which had twin motors and twin torpedoes. It was sold to the Russians, but proved unstable, ran aground, and was scrapped.
On September 8, 1888, an electrically powered vessel built by the Spanish engineer and sailor
Isaac PeralIsaac Peral , was a Spanish scientist, sailor and inventor of the Peral Submarine . Intended for military use, this submarine pioneered new designs in the hull, control systems and air systems, proving a success in two years of trials...
for the
Spanish NavyThe Spanish Navy is the maritime arm of the Spanish Military, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path from the Far East to America across the...
was launched. It had two torpedoes, new air systems, and a hull shape, propeller, and cruciform external controls anticipating much later designs. Its underwater speed was ten knots (19 km/h). In June 1890 Peral's submarine launched a torpedo while submerged. Its ability to fire torpedoes under water while maintaining full propulsive power and control has led some to call it the first
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
. After many successful dives the project was scrapped because of the difficulties of recharging at sea and the short range of battery-powered vessels.
Shortly after, the French
GymnoteThe Gymnote was one of the world's first all-electric submarines.Launched on 24 September 1888, she was developed in France following early experiments by Dupuy de Lôme, and, after his death, by Gustave Zédé and Arthur Krebs, who completed the project...
was launched on September 24, 1888. The electrically-powered
Gymnote, another fully functional military submarine, completed 2,000 dives successfully.
Many more designs were built at this time by various inventors, but submarines were not to become effective weapons until the 20th century.
Late 19th century to World War I
The turn of the 19th century marked a pivotal time in the development of submarines, with a number of important technologies making their debut, as well as the widespread adoption and fielding of submarines by a number of nations. Diesel electric propulsion would become the dominant power system and equipment such as the periscope would become standardized. Large numbers of experiments were done by countries on effective tactics and weapons for submarines, all of which would culminate in them making a large impact on the coming World War I.
In 1896, the Irish-American inventor
John Philip HollandJohn Philip Holland was an engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S...
designed submarines that, for the first time, made use of
internal combustion engineThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable...
power on the surface and electric battery power for submerged operations. The
Holland VI was launched on May 17, 1897 at Navy Lt.
Lewis NixonLewis Nixon was a naval architect, shipbuilding executive, public servant, and political activist. He designed the United States' first modern battleships, and supervised the construction of its first modern submarines, all before his 40th birthday...
's
Crescent ShipyardCrescent Shipyard, located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, built a number of ships for the United States Navy and allied nations as well during their production run, which lasted about ten years while under the Crescent name and banner. Production of these ships began before the Spanish-American war and...
of Elizabeth, New Jersey. On April 11, 1900 the United States Navy purchased the revolutionary
Holland VI and renamed it the , America's first commissioned submarine. (John P. Holland's company, the Holland Torpedo Boat Company/Electric Boat Company became
General DynamicsGeneral Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. The company has changed markedly in the post-Cold War era of defense consolidation. The company has four main business segments:...
"
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
" progeny and is arguably the builder of the world's most technologically advanced submarines today).
A prototype version of the
Plunger classThe Plunger-class was an early class of United States Navy submarines, used primarily as training vessels for the newly formed "silent service" to familiarize navy personnel with the performance and operations of such craft. Most of these "A-class" submarines ended up being stationed in the...
or A-class submarines, the
Fulton, was developed at Nixon's Crescent Shipyard for the United States Navy before the construction of the A-class submarines there in 1901. A naval architect and shipbuilder from the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
Arthur Leopold BuschArthur Leopold Busch or Du Busc was a British-born American naval architect responsible for the development of the United States Navy's first submarines. He was the shipyard superintendent at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard located in Elizabethport, New Jersey at the turn of the last century...
, superintended the development of these first submarines for Holland's company. However the
Fulton was never purchased by the U.S. Navy and was eventually sold to the
Imperial Russian NavyThe Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
during the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
of 1904-1905. Two other A-class vessels were built on the West Coast of (USA) at
Mare Island Naval ShipyardThe Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy shipyard established on the Pacific Coast. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of...
/
Union Iron WorksUnion Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.-History:...
circa 1901. In 1902, Holland received a patent for his persistent pursuit to perfect the underwater naval craft. By this time, Holland was no longer in control of the day to day operations at Electric Boat, as others were now at the helm of the company he once founded. The acumen of business were now in control of these operations as Holland was forced to step down. His resignation from the company was to be effective as of April 1904.
Many other countries became interested in Holland's products around this time. Holland's innovations and ideas were considered to be the most technologically advanced at the time and were universally acknowledged as such. From 1901 onwards some of Holland's vessels were purchased by the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
and other governments including the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, the
Imperial Russian NavyThe Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
,
Imperial Japanese NavyThe Imperial Japanese Navy , literally Navy of the Empire of Greater Japan was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
and the
Royal Netherlands NavyThe Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands.-Bases:The main naval base is Den Helder, Noord Holland.Secondary naval bases are in Amsterdam, Vlissingen, Texel and Willemstad...
.
Commissioned in June 1900, the French steam and electric submarine
Narval introduced the classic double-hull design, with a pressure hull inside the outer light hull. These 200-ton ships had a range of over on the surface, and over underwater. The French submarine
Aigrette in 1904 further improved the concept by using a diesel rather than a gasoline engine for surface power. Large numbers of these submarines were built, with seventy-six completed before 1914.
Submarines during World War I
Military submarines first made a significant impact in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. Forces such as the
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s of Germany saw action in the First Battle of the Atlantic, and were responsible for the sinking of
LusitaniaRMS Lusitania was an ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, torpedoed by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915. The ship sank in 18 minutes, eight miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard...
, which was sunk as a result of
unrestricted submarine warfareUnrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules...
and is often cited among the reasons for the entry of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
into the war.
The U-boats' ability to function as practical war machines relied on new tactics, their numbers, and submarine technologies such as combination diesel-electric power system developed in the preceding years. More submersibles than true submarines, U-boats operated primarily on the surface using regular engines, submerging occasionally to attack under battery power. They were roughly triangular in cross-section, with a distinct
keelIn boats and ships, keel can refer to either of two parts: a structural element, or a hydrodynamic element. These parts overlap. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in construction of a ship, the construction is dated from this event, with only the ship's launching considered more...
to control rolling while surfaced, and a distinct bow.
Interwar developments
Various new submarine designs were developed during the interwar years. Among the most notorious ones were
submarine aircraft carrierSubmarine aircraft carriers are submarines equipped with fixed wing aircraft for observation or attack missions. These submarines saw their most extensive use during World War II, although their operational significance remained rather small...
s, equipped with a waterproof hangar and steam catapult to launch and recover one or more small seaplanes. The submarine and its plane could then act as a reconnaissance unit ahead of the fleet, an essential role at a time when
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
still did not exist. The first example was the British
HMS M2HMS M2 was a Royal Navy aircraft-carrying submarine shipwrecked in Lyme Bay, Dorset, Britain, on 26 January 1932. She was one of three M class boats completed....
, followed by the French
Surcouf, and numerous aircraft-carrying submarines in the
Imperial Japanese NavyImperial Japanese Navy submarines originated with the purchase of five Holland type submarines from the United States in 1904. Japanese submarine forces progressively built up strength and expertise, becoming by the beginning of World War II one of the world's most varied and powerful submarine...
.
Germany
Germany had the largest submarine fleet during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Due to the
Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
limiting the surface navy, the rebuilding of the German surface forces had only begun in earnest a year before the outbreak of World War II. Expecting to be able to defeat the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
through underwater warfare, the German High Command pursued
commerce raidingCommerce raiding use naval forces to destroy the logistics of an enemy on the open sea, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them....
and immediately stopped all construction on capital surface ships save the nearly completed
Bismarck class battleshipThe Bismarck-class battleships were a pair of battleships built by Germany around the onset of World War II. In terms of full-load displacement, the Bismarck-class ships were the fourth-largest battleships ever completed, behind the Japanese Yamato-class, the American Iowa-class and the Royal...
s and two cruisers, switching its resources to submarines, which could be built more quickly. Though it took most of 1940 to expand the production facilities and get the mass production started, more than a thousand submarines were built by the end of the war.
Germany put submarines to devastating effect in the
Second Battle of the AtlanticThe Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaignof World War II,...
in World War II, attempting but ultimately failing to cut off Britain's supply routes by sinking more merchant ships than Britain could replace. The supply lines were vital to Britain for food and industry, as well as armaments from the US. Although the U-boats had been updated in the intervening years, the major innovation was improved communications, encrypted using the famous
Enigma cipher machineAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
. This allowed for mass-attack
tacticsMilitary tactics, the art of organizing an army, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle....
or "
wolf packThe term wolf pack refers to the mass-attack tactics against convoys used by German U-boats of the Kriegsmarine during the Battle of the Atlantic and submarines of the United States Navy against Japanese shipping in the Pacific Ocean in World War II.
...
s" (Rudeltaktik), but was also ultimately the U-boats' downfall.
After putting to sea, U-boats operated mostly on their own, trying to find convoys in areas assigned to them by the High Command. If a convoy was found, the submarine did not attack immediately, but shadowed the convoy to allow other submarines in the area to find the convoy. These were then grouped into a larger striking force to attack the convoy simultaneously, preferably at night while surfaced.
From September 1939 to the beginning of 1943, the
Ubootwaffe ("U-boat force") scored unprecedented success with these tactics, but were too few to have any decisive success. By the spring of 1943, German U-boat construction was at full capacity, but this was more than nullified by increased numbers of convoy escorts and aircraft, as well as technical advances like
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
and
sonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water...
.
Huff-DuffHigh frequency direction finder is usually known by its acronym HF/DF, pronounced Huff-Duff. This has become the common name for this type of radio direction finder, and was coined during World War II....
and
UltraUltra was the name used by the British for intelligence resulting from decryption of encrypted German radio communications in World War II. The term eventually became the standard designation in both Britain and the United States for all intelligence from high-level cryptanalytic sources...
allowed the Allies to route convoys around wolf packs when they detected them from their radio transmissions. The results were devastating: from March to July of that year, over 130 U-boats were lost, 41 in May alone. Concurrent Allied losses dropped dramatically, from 750,000 tons in March to only 188,000 in July. Although the
Second battle of the AtlanticThe Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaignof World War II,...
would continue to the last day of the war, the U-boat arm was unable to stem the tide of personnel and supplies, paving the way for
Operation TorchOperation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942....
, Operation Husky, and ultimately,
D-DayD-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
.
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
wrote that the U-boat "peril" was the only thing that ever gave him cause to doubt the Allies' eventual victory.
Japan
The
Imperial Japanese NavyThe Imperial Japanese Navy , literally Navy of the Empire of Greater Japan was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
started their submarine service with five
Holland Type VII class submarines purchased from the Electric Boat Company in 1904. Japan had the most varied fleet of submarines of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; including
KaitenThe Kaiten The Kaiten The Kaiten ' onMouseout='HidePop("4598")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ko-hyoteki_class_submarine">
Ko-hyotekiThe class was a class of Japanese midget submarines used during World War II. They had hull numbers but no names. For simplicity, they are most often referred to by the hull number of the mother submarine. Thus, the midget carried by I-16 was known as "the I-16 midget"...
and
KairyuThe was a class of midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed in 1943–1944, and produced from the beginning of 1945. These submarines were meant to meet the invading American naval forces upon their anticipated approach of Tokyo.-History:...
), medium-range submarines, purpose-built supply submarines and long-range fleet submarines. They also had submarines with the highest submerged speeds during World War II (
Sen taka I-200 class submarineThe I-201-class submarines were submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. These submarines were of advanced design, built for high underwater speed, and were known as Senkou...
s) and submarines that could carry multiple aircraft the (
Sen toku I-400 class submarineThe Sen Toku I-400-class submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy were the largest submarines of World War II, and remained the largest ever built prior to the development of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s. They were submarine aircraft carriers able to carry three Aichi M6A...
). They were also equipped with one of the most advanced torpedoes of the conflict, the oxygen-propelled
Type 95The Type 95 torpedo was a torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Based on the formidable Type 93 torpedo , the Type 95 had a smaller warhead, less range and a smaller diameter, and intended to be fired from a standard 533mm torpedo tube of a submerged submarine...
.
Nevertheless, despite their technical prowess, Japan had chosen to utilize its submarines for fleet warfare, and consequently were relatively unsuccessful, as warships were fast, maneuverable and well-defended compared to merchant ships. In 1942, a Japanese submarine sank one aircraft carrier, damaged one battleship, and damaged one destroyer (which sank later) from one torpedo salvo; and during the
Battle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
were able to deliver the
coup de graceThe expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to killing civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies and with or without the consent of the sufferer...
to another fleet aircraft carrier. With the lack of fuel oil and air supremacy, Imperial submarines were not able to sustain those kind of results afterwards. By the end of the war, submarines were instead often used to transport supplies to island garrisons.
United States
The United States Navy used its submarine force to attack both warships and merchant shipping; and
destroyed more Japanese shippingAllied submarines were a key contributor to the Empire of Japan's defeat during the Pacific War. During the war submarines were responsible for fifty-five percent of Japan's merchant marine losses. The war against shipping was the single most decisive factor in the collapse of the Japanese economy...
than all other weapons combined. This feat was considerably aided by the Imperial Japanese Navy's failure to provide adequate escort forces for the nation's merchant fleet.
Whereas Japan had the finest submarine torpedoes of the war, the U.S. Navy had the worst: the
Mark 14 torpedoThe Mark 14 torpedo was the United States Navy's standard submarine-launched anti-ship torpedo of World War II.This weapon was plagued with many problems which crippled its performance early in the war, and was supplemented by the Mark 18 electric torpedo in the war's final months...
that ran ten feet too deep, tipped with a Mk VI exploder that was based on an unimproved version of the Mark V contact exploder but with an additional magnetic exploder, neither of which was reliable. The faulty depth control mechanism of the Mark 14 was corrected in August 1942, but field trials for the exploders were not ordered until mid-1943, when tests in Hawaii and Australia confirmed the flaws. Fully operational Mark 14 torpedoes were not put into service until September 1943. The Mark 15 torpedo used by US surface combatants had the same Mk VI exploder and was not fixed until late 1943. One attempt to correct the problems resulted in a wakeless, electric torpedo being placed in submarine service, but
USS TangUSS Tang was a Second World War era Balao-class submarine. She was launched in 1943 and had a brief but successful career before being sunk by one of her own faulty torpedoes in 1944....
and
TullibeeUSS Tullibee , a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tullibee, a whitefish of central and northern North America. Her keel was laid down on 1 April 1942 at Mare Island, California, by the Mare Island Navy Yard. She was launched on 11 November 1942...
were lost to self-inflicted hits by these torpedoes.
During World War II, 314 submarines served in the United States Navy, of which nearly 260 were deployed to the Pacific. On December 7, 1941, 111 boats were in commission; 203 submarines from the
GatoThe United States Navy Gato class submarine design was the forerunner of all US World War II submarine designs.- History :New construction of the class began in 1941 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's proclamation of "limited emergency" in September 1939...
,
BalaoThe Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 128 units built, the largest class of submarines in the United States Navy. An improvement on the earlier Gato class, the boats had slight internal differences...
, and
TenchTench class submarines were a type of submarine built for the United States Navy between 1944 and 1951. They were evolutionary improvement over the Gato and Balao classes, only about 35 to 40 tons larger, but more strongly built and with a slightly improved internal layout...
classes were commissioned during the war. During the war, 52 US submarines were lost to all causes, with 48 lost directly to hostilities; 3,505 sailors were lost, the highest percentage
killed in actionKilled in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces by other hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to hostile attack...
of any US service arm in WWII. US submarines sank 1,560 enemy vessels, a total tonnage of 5.3 million tons, including 8 aircraft carriers and over 200 warships.
United Kingdom
The
Royal Navy Submarine ServiceThe Royal Navy Submarine Service is the submarine element of the Royal Navy. It is sometimes known as the "Silent Service", on account of a submarine being required to operate quietly in order to remain undetected by enemy sonar...
was primarily used to enforce the classic British
blockadeA blockade is an effort to cut off the communications of a particular area by force. It is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually directed at an entire country or region, rather than a fortress or city. Also, a blockade historically took place at sea, with the blockading power seeking...
role. It therefore chiefly operated in inshore waters and tended to only surface by night.
Its major operating areas were around
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, the Mediterranean (against the Axis supply routes to
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
), and in the Far East. RN submarines operating out of
TrincomaleeTrincomalee is a port city on the east coast of Sri Lanka, about 110 miles northeast of Kandy. The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. It is one of the main centers of Tamil speaking culture on the island...
and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
were a constant threat to Japanese shipping passing through the Malacca Straits.
In the war British submarines sank 2 million tons of enemy shipping and 57 major warships, the latter including 35 submarines. Amongst these is the only instance ever of a submarine sinking another submarine while both were submerged. This occurred when
HMS VenturerHMS Venturer was a World War II British submarine and the lead boat of the V-Class .She sank U-771 on 11 November 1944 east of Andenes, Norway, off the Lofoten Islands...
engaged the
U864
; the
Venturer crew manually computed a successful firing solution against a three-dimensionally manoeveuring target using techniques which became the basis of modern torpedo computer targeting systems. Seventy-four British submarines were lost, half probably to
naval mineA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of or contact with an enemy ship...
s.
The snorkel
Diesel-electric submarines need air to run their diesel engines, and so carried very large
batteriesAn electrical battery is a combination of one or more electrochemical cells, used to convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first Voltaic pile in 1800 by Alessandro Volta, the battery has become a common power source for many household and industrial...
for submerged operation. The need to recharge the batteries from the diesel engines limited the endurance of the submarine while submerged and required it to surface regularly for extended periods, during which it was especially vulnerable to detection and attack. The
snorkelA submarine snorkel is a device that allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. It was invented by the Dutch shortly before World War II and copied by the Germans during the war for use by U-Boats...
, a prewar Dutch invention, was used to allow German submarines to run their diesel engines whilst running just under the surface, drawing air through a tube from the surface.
The German Navy also experimented with engines that would use
hydrogen peroxideHydrogen peroxide is a very pale blue liquid, slightly more viscous than water, that appears colorless in dilute solution. It is a weak acid, has strong oxidizing properties, and is a powerful bleaching agent. It is used as a disinfectant, antiseptic, oxidizer, and in rocketry as a propellant...
to allow diesel fuel to be used while submerged, but technical difficulties were great. The Allies experimented with a variety of detection systems, including chemical sensors to "
smellOlfaction refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...
" the exhaust of submarines.
Cold-war diesel-electric submarines, such as the
OberonThe Oberon class was a 27-ship class of British-built diesel-electric submarines based on the successful British Porpoise class submarine....
class, used batteries to power their electric motors in order to run silently. They recharged the batteries using the diesel engines without ever surfacing.
Modern military submarines
The first launch of a
cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
(
SSM-N-8 RegulusThe SSM-N-8A Regulus cruise missile was the nuclear deterrent weapon employed by the United States Navy from 1955 to 1964.-Design and development:...
) from a submarine occurred in July 1953 from the deck of USS
Tunny (SSG-282), a
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
fleet boat modified to carry this missile with a
nuclear warheadA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
.
Tunny and her sister boat USS
Barbero (SSG-317) were the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's first nuclear deterrent patrol submarines. They were joined in 1958 by two purpose built Regulus submarines,
USS Grayback (SSG-574)USS Grayback , the lead ship of her class of submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grayback, a small herring of great commercial importance in the Great Lakes....
,
USS Growler (SSG-577)USS Growler , an early cruise missile submarine of the Grayback class, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the growler, a large-mouth black bass.-Construction and training:...
, and, later, by the nuclear powered
USS Halibut (SSGN-587)USS Halibut , a unique guided missile submarine turned special operations platform, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the halibut. Her keel was laid down by Mare Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California....
.
In the 1950s,
nuclear powerNuclear power is power produced from controlled nuclear reactions. Commercial plants in use to date use nuclear fission reactions....
partially replaced diesel-electric propulsion. Equipment was also developed to extract
oxygenOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
from sea water. These two innovations gave submarines the ability to remain submerged for weeks or months, and enabled previously impossible voyages such as
USS NautilusUSS Nautilus was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first vessel to complete a submerged transit across the North Pole....
' crossing of the
North poleThe North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets the Earth's surface...
beneath the Arctic ice cap in 1958 and the
USS TritonUSS Triton , a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine, was the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth, accomplishing this during her shakedown cruise in early 1960 while under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr...
's submerged circumnavigation of the world in 1960. Most of the naval submarines built since that time in the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia have been powered by nuclear reactors. The limiting factors in submerged endurance for these vessels are food supply and crew morale in the space-limited submarine.
In 1959–1960, the first
ballistic missile submarineA ballistic missile submarine is a submarine equipped to launch ballistic missiles .-Description:Ballistic missile submarines are larger than any other type of submarine, in order to accommodate SLBMs such as the Russian R-29 or the American Trident...
s were put into service by both the United States (
George Washington classThe George Washington class was a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines employed by the United States Navy. The Navy ordered a class of nuclear-powered submarines armed with long-range strategic missiles on 31 December 1957, and tasked Electric Boat with converting two existing...
) and the Soviet Union (
Hotel classThe Hotel class is the general NATO classification for a type of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine that was originally put into service by the Soviet Union around 1959. The Soviet designation is Project 658.-Design:...
) as part of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
nuclear deterrentA nuclear deterrent is the phrase used to refer to a country's nuclear weapons arsenal, when considered in the context of deterrence theory.Deterrence theory holds that nuclear weapons are intended to deter other states from attacking with their nuclear weapons, through the promise of retaliation...
strategy.
While the greater endurance and performance from nuclear reactors makes nuclear submarines better for long-distance missions or the protection of a carrier battle group, their reactor cooling pumps have traditionally made them noisier, and thus easier to detect, than conventional diesel-electric submarines. Diesel-electrics have continued to be produced by both nuclear and non-nuclear powers as they lack this limitation, except when required to run the diesel engine to recharge the ship’s battery. Recent technological advances in sound damping, noise isolation, and cancellation have made nuclear subs quieter and substantially eroded this advantage. Though far less capable regarding speed and weapons payload, conventional submarines are also cheaper to build. The introduction of
air-independent propulsionAir-independent propulsion is a term that encompasses technologies which allow a submarine to operate without the need to surface or use a snorkel to access atmospheric oxygen. The term usually excludes the use of nuclear power, and describes augmenting or replacing the diesel-electric propulsion...
boats, conventional diesel-electric submarines with some kind of auxiliary air-independent electricity generator, have led to increased sales of such types of submarines.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union maintained large submarine fleets that engaged in cat-and-mouse games. The Soviet Union suffered the loss of at least four submarines during this period:
K-129K-129 was a Project 629A diesel-electric powered submarine of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, one of six Project 629 strategic ballistic missile submarines attached to the 15th Submarine Squadron based at Rybachiy Naval Base, Kamchatka, commanded by Rear Admiral Rudolf A. Golosov...
was lost in 1968 (which the CIA attempted to retrieve from the ocean floor with the
Howard HughesHoward Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer, film director, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained fame in the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big budget and often controversial films like Hell's Angels,...
-designed ship
Glomar Explorer),
K-8K-8 was a November class submarine of the Soviet Northern Fleet that sank in the Bay of Biscay with its nuclear weapons on board on April 12, 1970...
in 1970,
K-219K-219 was a Navaga-class ballistic missile submarine of the Soviet Navy. She carried 16 SS-N-6 liquid-fuel missiles powered by UDMH with IRFNA, equipped with an estimated 34 nuclear warheads....
in 1986, and
Komsomolets in 1989 (which held a depth record among military submarines—1000 m). Many other Soviet subs, such as
K-19K-19, KS-19, BS-19 was one of the first two Soviet submarines of the 658, 658м, 658с class , the first generation nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles. Her keel was laid down on 17 October 1958, christened on 8 April 1959 and launched on 11 October 1959...
(the first Soviet nuclear submarine, and the first Soviet sub to reach the North Pole) were badly damaged by fire or radiation leaks. The US lost two nuclear submarines during this time:
USS ThresherThe second USS Thresher was the lead ship of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy. Her loss at sea during deep-diving tests in 1963 is often considered a watershed event in the implementation of the rigorous submarine safety program SUBSAFE.The contract to build...
due to equipment failure during a test dive while at its operational limit, and
USS ScorpionUSS Scorpion was a Skipjack-class nuclear submarine of the United States Navy, and the sixth ship of the U.S. Navy to carry that name. Scorpion was declared lost on 5 June 1968, one of the few U.S. Navy submarines to be lost at sea while not at war and is one of only two nuclear submarines the U.S...
due to unknown causes.
During the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian and Bangladeshi sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's 3 December 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
, the
Pakistan NavyThe Pakistan Navy is the naval branch of the military of Pakistan. It is responsible for Pakistan's 1,046 kilometer coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important harbors...
's
HangorPNS Hangor was a Pakistani Daphné class submarine, which during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War sank the Indian frigate INS Khukri. It also damaged another warship, INS...
sank the Indian frigate
INS KhukriINS Khukri was a Type 14 ASW frigate in service of the Indian Navy. It was sunk by a Pakistan Navy new French Daphne class submarine PNS Hangor at 2000hrs on 8 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, off the coast of Diu, Gujarat, India...
. This was the first kill by a submarine since World War II, and the only one until the United Kingdom employed nuclear-powered submarines against
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
in 1982 during the
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
. The Argentine cruiser
General BelgranoThe ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy cruiser sunk during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror with the loss of 323 lives...
was sunk by
HMS ConquerorHMS Conqueror was a nuclear-powered fleet submarine that served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1990. She was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. As of 2009, she is the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes, sinking the cruiser ARA General Belgrano with two...
(the first sinking by a nuclear-powered submarine in war). The
PNS GhaziPNS Ghazi was a United States-built submarine that was leased by Pakistan in 1963. It operated in the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan and was Pakistan's first submarine and remained the flagship submarine for Pakistan Navy until it sank in 1971...
, a
Tench class submarineTench class submarines were a type of submarine built for the United States Navy between 1944 and 1951. They were evolutionary improvement over the Gato and Balao classes, only about 35 to 40 tons larger, but more strongly built and with a slightly improved internal layout...
on loan to Pakistan from the US, was sunk in the Indo-Pakistani War. It was the first submarine casualty since World War II during war time.
More recently, Russia has had three high profile submarine accidents. The
Kursk went down with all handsOn 12 August 2000, the Russian Oscar II class submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. The generally accepted theory is that a leak of hydrogen peroxide in the forward torpedo room led to the detonation of a torpedo warhead, which in turn triggered the explosion of up to seven other warheads about...
in 2000; the
K-159K-159 was a Project 627A "Kit" nuclear-powered submarine of the Soviet Northern Fleet. Her keel was laid down on 15 August 1962 at the Severodvinsk "Sevmash" Shipyard No. 402...
sank while being towed to a scrapyard in 2003, with nine lives lost; and the
Nerpa had an accident with the fire-extinguishing system resulting in twenty deaths in late 2008.
Indian Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of India is the head of government of the Republic of India, and head of the Council of Ministers, appointed by the President to assist the latter in the administration of the affairs of the executive in India...
Manmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the first person of Sikh faith to hold the office...
launched
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
's first locally built nuclear-powered submarine, the
Arihant, on July 26, 2009. "Today, we join a select group of five nations who possess the capability to build a nuclear-powered submarine," Singh stated during a speech at
VisakhapatnamVisakhapatnam is a coastal, port city, often called "The Jewel of the East Coast", situated in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located on the eastern shore of India, nestled among the hills of the Eastern Ghats and facing the Bay of Bengal to the east...
naval base.
Polar Operations
_surfaced_through_artic_ice.gif)
- 1903 - Simon Lake
Simon Lake was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines for the United States Navy.Born in Pleasantville, New Jersey, Lake joined his father's...
submarine Protector surfaced through ice off Newport, Rhode IslandNewport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States...
.
- 1930 - USS O-12 (SS-73)
USS O-12 was an O-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 6 March 1916 by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut....
operated under ice near SpitsbergenSpitsbergen is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km²...
.
- 1937 - Soviet submarine Krasnogvardeyets operated under ice in the Denmark Strait
thumb|250px|Location mapThe Denmark Strait is a strait between Greenland and Iceland . The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen is located northeast of the strait....
.
- 1941-45 - German U-boats operated under ice from the Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
to the Laptev SeaThe Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the eastern coast of Siberia, Taimyr Peninsula, the Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to point with coordinates 79°N and 139°E and closes at the Anisiy Cape...
.
- 1946 - USS Atule (SS-403)
USS Atule , a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the atule.Her keel was laid down on 25 November 1943 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Atule was launched on 6 March 1944 sponsored by Miss Elizabeth Louise Kauffman, the daughter of...
used upward-beamed fathometer in Operation Nanook in the Davis StraitDavis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....
.
- 1946-47 - USS Sennet (SS-408)
USS Sennet , a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the sennet, a barracuda.Sennet was laid down on 8 March 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine; launched on 6 June 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Roscoe W. Downs; and commissioned on 22 August 1944, Commander...
used under-ice SONARSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels. There are two kinds of sonar: active and passive. Sonar may be used as a means of acoustic location and of measurement of the echo characteristics of "targets" in the water...
in Operation High Jump in the Antarctic.
- 1947 - USS Boarfish (SS-327)
USS Boarfish , a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the boarfish, a fish having a projecting hog-like snout....
used upward-beamed echo sounder under pack ice in the Chukchi SeaChukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea...
.
- 1948 - USS Carp (SS-338)
USS Carp , a Balao-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the carp, a fresh water fish inhabiting the waters of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America....
developed techniques for making vertical ascents and descents through polynyaA polynya or polynia is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as geographical term for areas of sea in Arctic or Antarctic regions which remain unfrozen for much of the year...
s in the Chukchi Sea.
- 1952 - USS Redfish (SS-395)
USS Redfish , a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the redfish, a variety of salmon also called blueback, sawqui, red salmon, and nerka. Her keel was laid down on 9 September 1943 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard of Kittery, Maine...
used an expanded upward-beamed sounder array in the Beaufort SeaThe Beaufort Sea is the portion of the Arctic Ocean located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska and west of Canada's Arctic islands. Its northwestern boundary is defined by a line connecting Point Barrow, Alaska, and Lands End, Prince Patrick Island. It is about...
.
- 1957 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
USS Nautilus was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first vessel to complete a submerged transit across the North Pole....
reached 87 degrees north near Spitsbergen.
- 3 August 1958 - Nautilus used an inertial navigation system
An Inertial Navigation System is a navigation aid that uses a computer, motion sensors and rotation sensors to continuously calculate via dead reckoning the position, orientation, and velocity of a moving object without the need for external references...
to reach the north pole.
- 17 March 1959 - USS Skate (SSN-578)
USS Skate , the second submarine of the United States Navy named for the skate, a type of ray, was the lead ship of the Skate class of nuclear submarines...
surfaced through the ice at the north pole.
- 1960 - USS Sargo (SSN-583)
USS Sargo , a Skate-class nuclear-powered submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sargo, a food and game fish of the porgy family, inhabiting coastal waters of the southern United States....
transited 900 miles under ice over the shallow (125 to 180 feet deep) Bering-Chukchi shelf.
- 1960 - USS Seadragon (SSN-584)
USS Seadragon , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seadragon, a small fish commonly called the dragonet....
transited the Northwest PassageThe Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
under ice.
- 1962 - Soviet November class submarine
The Project 627 class submarine was the Soviet Union's first class of nuclear-powered submarines.-History:...
Leninskiy Komsomol reached the north pole.
- 1971 - HMS Dreadnought (S101)
The seventh HMS Dreadnought was the United Kingdom's first nuclear-powered submarine, built by Vickers Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness.-Design and construction:...
reached the north pole.
- 6 May 1986 - USS Ray (SSN-653)
USS Ray , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the ray, a fish characterized by a flat body, large pectoral fins, and a whiplike tail. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company on 26 March 1963 and her keel was laid down on...
, USS Archerfish (SSN-678)USS Archerfish , a Sturgeon-class submarine,was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the archerfish, a family of fish notable for their habit of preying on insects and other animals by shooting them down with squirts of water from the mouth.-Construction:Archerfishs keel was...
and USS Hawkbill (SSN-666)USS Hawkbill , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the hawksbill, a large sea turtle....
meet and surface together at the Geographic North Pole. First multi-submarine surfacing at the Pole.
- 19 May 1987 - HMS Superb (S109)
HMS Superb is a nuclear powered fleet submarine of the Swiftsure class serving in the Royal Navy.She was built by Vickers Shipbuilding Groups, now a division of BAE Systems Submarine Solutions. HMS Superb was launched on 30 November 1974 at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and commissioned into the...
joined USS Billfish (SSN-676)USS Billfish , a Sturgeon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the billfish, any fish, such as gar or spearfish, with bill-shaped jaws....
and USS Sea Devil (SSN-664)USS Sea Devil , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea devil , the largest of all rays, noted for power and endurance. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 28 May 1964 and her keel...
at the North Pole. The first time British and Americans met at the North Pole.
- March 2007 - USS Alexandria (SSN-757)
USS Alexandria , a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, is the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for both Alexandria, Virginia, and Alexandria, Louisiana.- Construction :...
participated in the Joint U.S. Navy/Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
Ice Exercise 2007 (ICEX-2007) in the Arctic Ocean with the Trafalgar class submarineThe Trafalgar class submarines are, until the introduction of the Astute class, the Royal Navy's most advanced nuclear fleet submarines...
HMS Tireless (S88)HMS Tireless , a Trafalgar class submarine, is the second submarine of the Royal Navy to bear this name. She was launched in March 1984, sponsored by Mrs Sue Squires, wife of Admiral 'Tubby' Squires, and commissioned in October 1985....
.
Modern tourist submarines
Submarines with a crush depth in the range of are operated in several areas worldwide, typically with bottom depths around , with a carrying capacity of 50 to 100 passengers. In a typical operation (for example,
Atlantis submarinesAtlantis Submarines is a passenger submarine company. The company currently has 11 submarines and operates undersea tours in Grand Cayman, Barbados, Aruba, Guam, Cozumel and on the Hawaii Islands of Kona, Maui and Oahu. The company launched the world's first commercial passenger submarine tours in...
), a surface vessel carries passengers to an offshore operating area, where passengers are exchanged with those of the submarine. The submarine then visits underwater points of interests, typically either natural or artificial reef structures. To surface safely without danger of collision the location of the submarine is marked with an air release and movement to the surface is coordinated by an observer in a support craft, this as described to the occupants during operations.
Submarine articles
- Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
An autonomous underwater vehicle is a robot which travels underwater. In military applications, AUVs are also known as unmanned undersea vehicles ...
- Ballistic missile submarine
A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine equipped to launch ballistic missiles .-Description:Ballistic missile submarines are larger than any other type of submarine, in order to accommodate SLBMs such as the Russian R-29 or the American Trident...
- Communication with submarines
Communication with submarines is difficult because radio waves don't travel well through thick electrical conductors like salt water.The obvious solution is to surface and raise an antenna above the water, then use ordinary radio transmissions. Early submarines had to frequently surface anyway for...
- Deep Submergence Vehicle
Deep Submergence Vehicles are deep diving manned submarines that are self-propelled. The term DSV is generally one used by the United States Navy, though several navies operate vehicles that can be accurately described as DSVs...
- Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle
A Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle is a type of Deep Submergence Vehicle used for rescue of downed submarines and clandestine missions. While DSRV is the term most often used by the United States Navy, some nations have other designations for their vehicles.- Chinese models :The People's Republic...
- John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland was an engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S...
- List of countries with submarines
- List of submarine actions
- List of submarine museums
- List of sunken nuclear submarines
- Merchant submarine
A merchant submarine is a type of submarine intended for trade, and being without armaments, it is not considered a warship like most other types of submarines...
- Submarine navigation
Submarine navigation underwater requires special skills and technologies not needed by surface ships. The challenges of underwater navigation have become more important as submarines spend more time underwater, travelling greater distances and at higher speed. Military submarines travel underwater...
- Submarine warfare
Naval warfare is divided into three operational areas: surface warfare, air warfare and underwater warfare. The latter may be subdivided into submarine warfare and anti-submarine warfare as well as mine warfare and mine countermeasures...
- Submarines in the United States Navy
There are two major types of submarines in the United States Navy: ballistic missile submarines and attack submarines. In the U.S. Navy, all combatant submarines are nuclear-powered. Ballistic subs have a single, strategic mission: carrying nuclear submarine-launched ballistic missiles...
:Category:Fictional submarines
- Submarine films
- Submarine simulator
A submarine simulator, or subsim for short, is usually a computer game in which the player commands a submarine. The usual form of the game is to go on a series of missions, each of which features a number of encounters where the goal is to sink surface ships and to survive counterattacks by...
, a computer game genre
- Wet sub
A wet sub is a type of underwater vehicle that does not provide a dry environment for its occupants. Usually, wet suited scuba divers will ride upon the device , although it can be designed to fully enclose its occupant to provide lower drag...
Related topics
- Timeline of underwater technology
This is a timeline of underwater technology.The entries marked ## are about decompression tables.-Pre-industrial:* Several centuries BC: This is a timeline of underwater technology.The entries marked ## are about decompression tables.-Pre-industrial:* Several centuries BC: This is a timeline of...
- Modern Naval tactics
The term modern naval tactics refers to tactical doctrines developed after World War II, following the final obsolescence of the battleship and the development of long-range missiles. Since there has been no major naval conflict since World War II, with the exception of the Falklands War, many of...
- Nuclear navy
Nuclear navy, or nuclear powered navy consists of ships powered by relatively small onboard nuclear reactors known as naval reactors. The concept was revolutionary for naval warfare when first proposed, as it meant that these vessels did not need to stop for fuel like their conventional...
- Submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid beneath the sea to carry telecommunications between countries.The first submarine communications cables carried telegraphy traffic. Subsequent generations of cables carried first telephony traffic, then data communications traffic...
- Submarine power cable
Submarine power cables are cables for electrical power running through the sea, below the surface.A DC system may use the ground and seawater as a return path for current. However, this cannot be always practiced because of disturbances to magnetic compass systems on vessels crossing the cable and...
- Submersible
***Also see Submersible drilling rig for offshore drillingA submersible is a commerical or non-military midget submarine with limited service range and is typically transported to its area of operation by a surface vessel or large submarine....
- Semi-submersible
A semisubmersible or semi-submersible is a marine vessel that is configured with large buoyant pontoon structures below the water surface and long columns through the water surface supporting a platform at a significant height....
- Depth charge
The depth charge is an anti-submarine weapon intended to defeat its target by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a predetermined depth. Some have been designed to use nuclear warheads...
- U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
Articles on specific vessels
- Ships named Nautilus
Nautilus—derived from a Greek word meaning "sailor" or "ship"—is the name of a tropical mollusk, having a many-chambered, spiral shell with a pearly interior...
- List of submarines of the Royal Navy
- List of submarines of the United States Navy
- List of Soviet submarines
- Submarines of the Chinese Navy
Submarines have long been one of the three focuses of the People's Liberation Army Navy , and when the decision was made in the late 2006 to concentrate on building other principal surface combatants to strengthen the air defense and to further delay the construction of aircraft carriers due to...
- Submarines of the French Navy
The submarine forces of France is the submarine component of the French Navy. It is a self-sufficient command served by 3,300 personnel and made up of two components:*the force océanique stratégique , made up of four ballistic missile submarines, based at île Longue*the...
- List of submarines of the Indian Navy
-Current Fleet:' ! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;" | Class ! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;" | Name ! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;" | Pennant No....
- List of U-boats
Articles on specific submarine classes
External links