History of submarines
Encyclopedia
Unmanned underwater vehicle
Unmanned underwater vehicles are any vehicles that are able to operate underwater without a human occupant. These vehicles may be divided into two categories, Remotely operated underwater vehicles , which are controlled by a remote human operator, and Autonomous underwater vehicles , which...
s.
In the 19th century torpedoes were launched from surface "torpedo boats", but these were susceptible to gunfire, as they had to close to a short range to launch. There was a requirement for a "submarine torpedo boat", which was shortened to "submarine".
Early history of submarines and the first submersibles
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. Later legends from Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, in the 12th century AD suggested that he had used a primitive submersible
Submersible
A submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
for reconnaissance missions. This seems to have been a form of diving bell
Diving bell
A diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers to depth in the ocean. The most common types are the wet bell and the closed bell....
, and was depicted in a 16th-century Islamic painting
Islamic art
Islamic art encompasses the visual arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by or ruled by culturally Islamic populations...
.
William Bourne (mathematician)
William Bourne was an English mathematician, innkeeper and former Royal Navy gunner who invented the first navigable submarine and wrote important navigational manuals...
designed a prototype submarine in 1578. Unfortunately for him these ideas never got beyond the planning stage. However, the first submersible proper to be actually built in modern times was constructed in 1605 by Magnus Pegelius but this became buried in mud.
The first successful submarine was built in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
; it may have been based on Bourne's design. It was propelled by 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.
John Wilkins
John Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
of Chester
Chester
Chester 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...
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.
By the 17th century the Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
s were using a riverboat
Riverboat
A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...
called the chaika (gull) that was used underwater for reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
and infiltration
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
missionshttp://library.techlink.gr/ptisi/article-main.asp?mag=2&issue=162&article=4134 This seems to have been closer to (and may have been developed from) Aristotle's description of the submersible used by Alexander the Great. The Chaika could be easily capsized and submerged so that the crew
Crew
A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard...
was able to breathe underneath (like in a modern diving bell
Diving bell
A diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers to depth in the ocean. The most common types are the wet bell and the closed bell....
) and propel the vessel by walking on the bottom of river. Special plummets (for submerging) and pipes for additional breathing were used.
By 1727, 14 types of submarine had been patented in England. In 1749 the Gentlemen's Magazine described a proposal made by Giovanni Borelli in 1680 for a boat with goatskins in the hull, each being connected to an opening. The boat would have been submerged by letting water into the goatskins and surfaced by forcing water out by a twisting rod. This seems to be the first approach to the modern ballast tank.
The first military submarines
Turtle (submarine)
The Turtle was the world's first submersible with a documented record of use in combat. It was built in Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1775 by American Patriot David Bushnell as a means of attaching explosive charges to ships in a harbor...
in 1776, a hand-powered egg-shaped device designed by the American David Bushnell
David Bushnell
David Bushnell , of Westbrook, 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 man. 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 War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, Turtle (operated by Sgt. Ezra Lee, Continental Army) tried and failed to sink a British warship, HMS Eagle
HMS Eagle (1774)
HMS 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 York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
harbor on September 7, 1776. There is no record of any attack in the ships' logs.
In 1800, France built a human-powered submarine designed by Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...
, the Nautilus. It also had a sail for use on the surface and so was the first known use of dual propulsion on a submarine. It proved capable of using mines to destroy two warships during demonstrations. The French eventually gave up with the experiment in 1804, as did the British when they later tried the submarine.
During the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, in 1814 Silas Halsey lost his life while using a submarine in an unsuccessful attack on a British warship stationed in New London
New London, Connecticut
New 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....
harbor.
In 1834 a Russian naval designer Karl Shilder built and tested an all-metal submarine in Saint Peterburg. His submarine was equipped by 6 Congreve rockets.
In 1851, a Bavarian artillery corporal, Wilhelm Bauer
Wilhelm Bauer
Wilhelm Bauer was the German inventor and engineer, who built several hand-powered submarines.-Biography:...
, took a submarine designed by him called the Brandtaucher
Brandtaucher
Brandtaucher was a submersible designed by the German inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer and built by Schweffel & Howaldt in Kiel for Schleswig-Holstein's Flotilla in 1850....
(fire-diver) to sea in Kiel Harbour. This submarine was built by August Howaldt
August Howaldt
August 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 treadwheel
Treadwheel
A 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 crew of 3 managed to escape. The submarine was raised in 1887 and is on display in a museum in Dresden.
Submarines in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the Union was the first to field a submarine. The French-designed Alligator
USS Alligator (1862)
The fourth United States Navy ship called Alligator is the first known U.S. Navy submarine, and was active during the American Civil War. The first American submarine, built in the Revolutionary War era, was the Turtle; however, this craft never served in the U.S...
was the first U.S. Navy sub and the first to feature compressed air (for air supply) and an air filtration system. It was the first submarine to carry a diver lock, which allowed a diver to plant electrically detonated mines on enemy ships. 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 Hatteras
Cape Hatteras
Cape 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 while uncrewed and under tow to its first combat deployment at Charleston.
The Intelligent Whale
Intelligent Whale
Intelligent Whale, an experimental hand-cranked submarine, was built on the design of Scovel Sturgis Merriam in 1863 by Augustus Price and Cornelius Scranton Bushnell. In 1864 the American Submarine Company was formed, taking over the interests of Bushnell and Price and there followed years of...
was built by Oliver Halstead and tested by the U.S. Navy after the American Civil War and caused the deaths of 39 men during trials.
The Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
fielded several human-powered submarines, including CSS H. L. Hunley (named for its designer and chief financier, Horace Lawson Hunley
Horace Lawson Hunley
Horace Lawson Hunley , was a Confederate marine engineer during the American Civil War. He developed early hand-powered submarines, the most famous of which was posthumously named for him, H. L...
). The first Confederate submarine was the 30 feet (9.1 m) Pioneer
Pioneer (submarine)
Pioneer 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 schooner
Schooner
A 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 no taller than the rear masts....
using a towed mine during tests on Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
but it was not used in combat. It was scuttled after New Orleans was captured and in 1868 was sold for scrap; the similar Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine
Bayou St. John Confederate Submarine
The 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:...
is preserved in the Louisiana State Museum
Louisiana State Museum
The 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....
. CSS Hunley was intended for attacking Union ships that were blockading Confederate seaports. The submarine had a long pole with an explosive charge in the bow, called a spar torpedo
Spar torpedo
A 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 the explosive, move away, and then detonate it. It 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 Housatonic
USS Housatonic (1861)
The first USS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, named for the 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...
off the 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.
Early submarines in Latin America
The Submarino Hipopótamo was the first submarine in South America built and tested in EcuadorEcuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador 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, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
on September 18, 1837. It was designed by Jose Rodriguez Lavandera, who successfully crossed the Guayas River
Guayas River
The 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.-Course:The Guayas River has one of...
in Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
accompanied by Jose Quevedo. Rodriguez Lavandera had enrolled in the Ecuadorian 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. Today, few engravings and a scale model of the original design is preserved by the Maritime Museum of the Ecuadorian Navy.
The "Flach
Flach (submarine)
Flach 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 between Chile
Chile
Chile ,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 Peru
Peru
Peru , 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....
against Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(1864–1866). It was built by the German engineer Karl Flach. The submarine sank during tests in Valparaiso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
bay on May 3, 1866, with the entire eleven-man crew.
In 1879, the Peruvian government, during the War of the Pacific
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...
commissioned and built a submarine. That was the fully operational Toro Submarino
Toro Submarino
The 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...
, which nevertheless never saw military action before being scuttled after the defeat of that country in the war to prevent its capture by the enemy.
European/American submarines (mid 1800s)
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
submarine Plongeur
Plongeur
Plongeur 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 equipped with a reciprocating engine using compressed air from 23 tanks at 180 psi.
The Ictineo II, designed by Narcís Monturiol
Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol
Narcís Monturiol Estarriol was a Spanish Catalan intellectual, artist and engineer. He was the inventor of the first combustion engine-driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion....
, was the first combustion driven submarine and the first fully functional submarine.
Air-independent propulsion
Air-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...
system. As 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. Apart from being mechanically powered, Monturiol's pioneering double hulled vessels also solved pressure, buoyancy, stability, diving and ascending problems that had bedeviled earlier designs.
In 1870, French writer Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
published the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Twenty 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 Nautilus
Nautilus (Verne)
The 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 that existed at that time. The story inspired inventors to build more advanced submarines.
in 1878 a Manchester curate, the Reverend George Garrett obtained a patent for "Improvements in and appertaining to Submarine or Subaqueous Boats" and set up a company to build them. His first prototype Resurgam
Resurgam
Resurgam 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....
was hand powered and next year the company built the steam-powered Resurgam II at Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
. Garrett intended to demonstrate the 12 m long vehicle to the Royal Navy at Portsmouth, but had mechanical problems, and while under tow the submarine was swamped and sank off North Wales.
The first submarine built in series, however, was human-powered. It was the submarine of the Polish inventor Stefan Drzewiecki
Stefan Drzewiecki
Stefan Drzewiecki was a Polish scientist, journalist, engineer, constructor and inventor, working in Russia and France....
—50 units were built in 1881 for Russian government. In 1884 the same inventor built an electric-powered submarine.
Discussions between George Garret and Swede Thorsten Nordenfelt
Thorsten Nordenfelt
Thorsten 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 long spindle shaped vessel similar to the Resurgam II, with a range of 240 kilometres and armed with a single external torpedo, completed in 1885. Greece, fearful of the return of the Ottomans, purchased it (the submarine was shipped in parts and assembled by the Ifaistos machine works in Piraeus). Due to problems during testing, it was never operationally utilized . Nordenfelt then built at Chertsey
Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...
the Nordenfelt II (Abdülhamid) in 1886 and Nordenfelt III (Abdülmecid) in 1887, a pair of 30 metre long submarines with twin torpedo tubes, for a worried Ottoman navy. "[Abdülhamid] achieved fame as the world's first submarine to fire a torpedo underwater." Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with the Nordenfelt IV, with twin motors and twin torpedoes, built at Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
. It was sold to the worried Russians, but proved unstable, ran aground and was scrapped.
Isaac Peral
Isaac Peral y Caballero , was a Spanish engineer, sailor and designer of the Peral Submarine .-Career:...
, for the Spanish Navy
Spanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
. It was launched on September 8, 1888. It had two torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
es, new air systems, hull shape and propeller and cruciform external controls anticipating later designs. Its underwater speed was ten knots. When fully charged it was the fastest submarine yet built, with performance levels (except for range) that matched or exceeded those of First World War U-boats. In June 1890 Peral's submarine launched a torpedo under the sea. It was also the first submarine to incorporate a fully reliable underwater navigation system. However, conservatives in the naval hierarchy terminated the project despite two years of successful tests.
Also marking an important milestone in the development of military submarines was the French navy's Gymnote
Gymnote
The 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...
, launched on September 24, 1888. The electrically powered Gymnote was another fully functional military submarine. It completed 2,000 dives successfully. However, like the Peral, its range was also limited by its reliance on batteries.
Many more submarines were built at this time by various inventors, such as Simon Lake
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...
and Oliver Halstead, but they were not to become effective weapons until the 20th century.
Late 19th century to the Russo-Japanese War
The Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
inventor John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland
John Philip Holland was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S...
built a model submarine in 1876 and a full scale one in 1878, followed by a number of unsuccessful ones. In 1896 he designed his Holland Type VI submarine, that, for the first time, made use of internal combustion engine power on the surface and electric battery
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
power for submerged operations. Launched on 17 May 1897 at Navy Lt. Lewis Nixon
Lewis Nixon (naval architect)
Lewis Nixon I 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. He was briefly the leader of Tammany Hall...
's Crescent Shipyard, the Holland VI was (eventually) purchased by the United States Navy on 11 April 1900, becoming the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine and renamed USS Holland
USS Holland (SS-1)
USS Holland was the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine, named for her Irish-American inventor, John Philip Holland, although not the first submarine of the US Navy, which was the 1862...
. A prototype version of the A-class submarine (Fulton) was developed (soon after) at Crescent under the supervision of naval architect Arthur Leopold Busch
Arthur Leopold Busch
Arthur Leopold Busch or Du Busc was a British-born American naval architect responsible for the development of the United States Navy's first submarines.-Career:...
for the newly reorganized Electric Boat Company in 1900. The Fulton was never commissioned by the United States Navy and was sold to the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February 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...
in 1905. Many countries became interested in Holland's (weapons) product and purchased "the rights" to build them during this time period. The Holland Torpedo Boat Company/Electric Boat Company became General Dynamics
General Dynamics
General 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. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
"Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
" progeny and is arguably the builder of the world's most technologically advanced submarines to this day.
The construction of the A-class boats soon followed the prototype (Fulton). The submarines were built at two different shipyards on both coasts of the United States. See: Union Iron Works
Union Iron Works
Union 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:...
/Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. 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 the...
and Crescent Shipyard
Crescent Shipyard
Crescent 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 New Jersey. In 1902, Holland received for his relentless pursuit to perfect the modern submarine craft. Some of his vessels were purchased by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other "technologically advanced" nations such as the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the Imperial Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February 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...
, the Royal Netherlands Navy
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
and the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy 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...
. Mr. Holland was no longer in control of his company at this point—as others were formally engaged in transactions with many other foreign nations around the world at this time. The Type VII design was also adopted by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
as well (with Holland's input, as the Holland class submarine, including Britain's Holland #1).
Imperial Japanese Navy Submarines 1904–1905
On 14 June 1904 the Imperial Japanese NavyImperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy 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...
(IJN) placed an order for five Holland Type VII submersibles, which were built in Quincy, Massachusetts at the Fore River Yard, and shipped to Yokohama, Japan in sections; all five machines arrived on 12 December 1904. Under the supervision of naval architect Arthur L. Busch
Arthur Leopold Busch
Arthur Leopold Busch or Du Busc was a British-born American naval architect responsible for the development of the United States Navy's first submarines.-Career:...
, the imported Hollands were re-assembled, and the first submersibles were ready for combat operations by August 1905, however hostilities were nearing the end by that date, and no submarines saw action during the war.
In 1904 Kawasaki
Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation
-External links:*...
purchased rights from Holland to manufacture two modified submersibles at Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Japan. The two Kaigun Hollands were numbered 6 & 7, and were both launched on 28 September, but a year apart, in 1905 and 1906 respectively. The #6 & #7 "Kawasaki" Hollands displaced 63/95 submerged tons, and measured 73'/84' in over all length, respectively; each vessel measured approximately 7' in width (beam). The two submarines had attained nearly a 50% increase in horsepower and a 25% decrease in fuel consumption over the five imported Hollands, which displaced over a 100 submerged tons each, and measured 67' in over all length, and were 11' wide (beam). However, the two Kawasaki machines could only launch one 18" torpedo and required 14 crewmen to operate, whilst the imported Hollands could fire two 18" torpedoes and only needed 13 men to operate. Kaigun Holland #6, the first submarine built in Japan, was removed from the naval list in 1920 and preserved as a memorial in Kure
Kure
Kure can refer to:*KURE, a radio station in Ames, Iowa*Kure Software Koubou, Japanese video game development company*Kure, Hiroshima , a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan**Kure Line, a rail line in the city...
, Japan.
Imperial Russian Navy Submarines 1904–1905
The Imperial Russian NavyImperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February 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...
(IRN) preferred the German constructed submersibles built by the Germaniawerft shipyards out of Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
. In 1903 Germany successfully completed its first fully functional engine-powered submarine, Forelle (Trout). This vessel was sold to Russia in 1904 and shipped via the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
to the combat zone during the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
.
Due to the naval blockade of Port Arthur, Russia sent their remaining submarines to Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
, and by the end of 1904 seven subs were based there. On 1 January 1905, the IRN created the world's first operational submarine fleet around these seven submarines. The first combat patrol sent out by the newly created IRN submarine fleet occurred on 14 February 1905 and was carried out by Delfin and Som, with each patrol normally lasting about 24 hours. Som had her first enemy contact on 29 April, when she was fired upon by IJN torpedo boats, which withdrew shortly after opening fire; resulting in no casualties or damage to either combatant. A second contact occurred on 1 July 1905 in the Tartar Strait when the IRN sub Keta was spotted by two IJN torpedo boats. Unable to submerge quick enough, she was unable to obtain a proper firing position, and both combatants broke contact.
In 1904, the IRN ordered several more submersibles from the Keil shipyard, the Karp
Karp class submarine
The Karp Class were a group of submarines built by Krupp Germaniawerft for the Imperial Russian Navy. The boats were ordered in the 1904 emergency programme as a result of the Russo-Japanese War. The design was a twin hull type with 7 ballast tanks and a 16 fathom diving limit. The boats were...
class. One example was modified and improved, then commissioned into the Imperial German Navy in 1906 as its first U-boat, U-1. In 1919, U-1 was retired and is currently preserved and on display in the Deutsches Museum
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
in Munich.
Submarines during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Forces such as the U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , 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
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
saw action in the First Battle of the Atlantic. The submarine's ability to function as a practical war machine relied on new tactics, their numbers, and submarine technologies such as combination diesel
Diesel engine
A 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...
/electric power system that had been developed in the preceding years. More like submersible ships than the submarines of today, Submarines operated primarily on the surface using standard engines, submerging occasionally to attack under battery power. They were roughly triangular in cross-section, with a distinct keel
Keel
In 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, in British and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event...
, to control rolling while surfaced, and a distinct bow.
Germany
At the start of the war Germany had 48 submarines in service or under construction, of which 29 were operational. Initially Germany followed the international "Prize Rules"Rules of Prize Warfare
Prize rules or cruiser rules govern the taking of prizes: vessels captured on the high seas during war. They are intertwined with the blockade rules.Customary rules were originally laid down in the days of sailing ships...
, which required a ship's crew to be allowed to leave before sinking their ship. After the British ordered transport ships to act as auxiliary cruisers, the German navy adopted unrestricted submarine warfare; generally no warning was given before an attack was made. During the war 360 submarines were built but 178 were lost, and all the rest were surrendered at the end.
Britain
There were 77 operational submarines at the beginning of the war, with 15 under construction. The main type was the "E class", but several experimental designs were built, including the "K class", which had a reputation for bad luck, and the "M class", which had a large deck-mounted gun. The "R class" was the first boat designed to attack other submarines. British submarines operated in the Baltic, North Sea and Atlantic, as well as in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Over 50 were lost from various causes during the war.France
France had 62 submarines at the beginning of the war, in 14 different classes. They operated mainly in the Mediterranean, and in the course of the war, 12 were lost.Russia
The Russians started the war with 58 submarines in service or under construction. The main class was the "Bars" with 24 boats. Twenty four submarines were lost during the war.Interwar developments
Submarine aircraft carrier
Submarine 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 waterproof hangar and steam catapult and which could launch and recover one or more small seaplanes. The submarine and her plane could then act as a reconnaissance unit ahead of the fleet, an essential role at a time when radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
still did not exist. The first example was the British HMS M2
HMS M2
HMS 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.Four M-class submarines replaced the order for the last four K-class, K17-K21...
, followed by the French Surcouf, and numerous aircraft-carrying submarines in the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy 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...
. The 1929 Surcouf was also designed as an "underwater cruiser," intended to seek and engage in surface combat.
Although Germany had been banned from having submarines, construction started in secret during the 1930s. When this became known the Anglo-German Treaty of 1936 allowed Germany to achieve parity in submarines with Britain.
Germany
Germany started the war with only 65 submarines, with 21 at sea when war broke out. However Germany soon built up the largest submarine fleet during World War II. Due to the Treaty of VersaillesTreaty of Versailles
The 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. Having no hope of defeating the vastly superior Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
decisively in a surface battle, the German High Command planned on fighting a campaign of "Guerre de course"
Commerce raiding
Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...
(Merchant warfare), and immediately stopped all construction on capital surface ships, save the nearly completed s and two cruisers, and switched the 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 World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
during the Battle of the Atlantic, attempting but ultimately failing to cut off Britain's supply routes by sinking more ships than Britain could replace. The supply lines were vital to Britain for food and industry, as well as armaments from the United States. Although the U-boats had been updated in the intervening years, the major innovation was improved communications, encrypted using the famous Enigma cipher machine
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
. This allowed for mass-attack tactics
Military tactics
Military tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
or "wolfpacks" (Rudel), but was also ultimately the U-boats' downfall.
After putting to sea, the 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 and radioed to the German Command to allow other submarines in the area to find the convoy. These were then grouped into a larger striking force and attacked the convoy simultaneously, preferably at night while surfaced to avoid the ASDIC.
In the first half of the War the submarines scored spectacular successes with these tactics, but were too few to have any decisive success. The attacks were made in the "Black Gap" between convoy escort areas and, when this was closed, off the coast of America. In the second half Germany had enough submarines, but this was more than nullified by equally increased numbers of convoy escorts, aircraft, and technical advances like radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
and sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
. Huff-Duff
Huff-Duff
High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF is the common name for a type of radio direction finding employed especially during the two World Wars....
and Ultra
Ultra
Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
allowed the Allies to route convoys around wolf packs when they detected them from their radio transmissions.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
wrote that the U-boat threat was the only thing that ever gave him cause to doubt the Allies' eventual victory.
The Germans built some novel submarine designs, including the Type XVII, which used hydrogen peroxide in a Walther turbine (named for its designer, Dr Helmuth Walther) for propulsion. They also produced the Type XXII, which had a large battery and mechanical torpedo handling.
Italy
Italy had 116 submarines in service at the start of the war, with 24 different classes. They operated mainly in the Mediterranean but some were sent to a base at BordeauxBordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
. A flotilla of several submarines operated out of the Eritrean colonial port of Massawa. The Italian design proved to be not very suitable for use in the Atlantic. The most interesting use of Italian boats was of midget submarines in attacks against shipping in the harbour at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
.
Japan
Japan had by far the most varied fleet of submarines of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, including manned torpedoes (Kaiten
Kaiten
The Kaiten were manned torpedos and suicide craft, they were used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.-History:...
), midget submarines (Ko-hyoteki
Ko-hyoteki class submarine
The 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...
, Kairyu), medium-range submarines, purpose-built supply submarines (many for use by the Army), long-range fleet submarines (many of which carried an aircraft), submarines with the highest submerged speeds of the conflict (Sentaka I-200
I-200 class submarine
The 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 or...
), and submarines that could carry multiple aircraft (WWII's largest submarine, the Sentoku I-400
I-400 class submarine
The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines were the largest submarines of World War II and remained the largest ever built until the construction of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s. They were submarine aircraft carriers able to carry three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft underwater to their...
). These submarines were also equipped with the most advanced torpedo of the conflict, the oxygen-propelled Type 95 (what U.S. historian Samuel E. Morison postwar called "Long Lance").
Overall, despite their technical prowess, Japanese submarines, having been incorporated into the Imperial Navy's war plan of "Guerre D' Escadre" (Fleet Warfare), in contrast to Germany's war plan of "Guerre De Course", they were relatively unsuccessful. Being primarily used in the offensive roles against warships, which were fast, maneuverable and well-defended compared to merchant ships. In 1942, Japanese submarines sank two fleet aircraft carriers, one cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
, and several destroyers and other warships, and damaged many others, including two battleships. They were not able to sustain these results afterward, as Allied fleets were reinforced and became better organized. By the end of the war, submarines were instead often used to transport supplies to island garrisons. During the war, Japan managed to sink about 1 million tons of merchant shipping (184 ships), compared to 1.5 million tons for Great Britain (493 ships), 4.65 million tons for the U.S. (1,079 ships) and 14.3 million tons for Germany (2,840 ships).
Early models were not very maneuverable under water, could not dive very deep, and lacked radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
. (Later in the war units that were fitted with radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
were in some instances sunk due to the ability of U.S. radar sets to detect their emissions. For example, Batfish (SS-310)
USS Batfish (SS-310)
USS Batfish , is a Balao-class submarine, the first vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the batfish, a small pediculate fish resembling the stingray.-Construction and commissioning:...
sunk three such equipped submarines in the span of four days). After the end of the conflict, several of Japan's most original submarines were sent to Hawaii for inspection in "Operation Road's End" (I-400
I-400 class submarine
The Imperial Japanese Navy submarines were the largest submarines of World War II and remained the largest ever built until the construction of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s. They were submarine aircraft carriers able to carry three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft underwater to their...
, I-401, I-201
I-200 class submarine
The 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 or...
and I-203) before being scuttled by the U.S. Navy in 1946, when the Soviets demanded access to the submarines as well.
France
France had 112 submarine in service at the beginning of the war. They operated in the North Sea and off Norway. After the French-German Armistice, French submarines were required to return to France but many were commandeered by the British. The German capture of French submarine bases gave them freer access to the Atlantic.Britain
There were 70 operational submarines in 1939. Two classes were selected for mass production, the sea going "S class" and the ocean going "T class" as well as the coastal "U class". All were built in large numbers during the war. They operated off Norway during the German invasion as well as in the North Sea. In the Mediterranean they attacked Axis supplies to North Africa from their base in MaltaMalta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. In addition British submarines attacked Japanese shipping in coastal waters during the Pacific campaign.
Soviet Union
The Red Fleet had 144 submarines in service or under construction at the start of the war.United States
.jpg)
Where Japan had the finest submarine torpedoes of the war, the USN had perhaps the worst, the Mark 14 steam torpedo
Mark 14 torpedo
The 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 last 2 years of the war...
, with a Mk 6 magnetic influence exploder designed to explode under the hull of the target vessel and a Mk 5 contact exploder, neither of which was reliable. For the first twenty months of the war, senior Submarine Force commanders (including RADM Ralph Christie
Ralph Waldo Christie
Ralph Waldo Christie was an admiral in the United States Navy who played a pivotal role in the development of torpedo technologies...
, ComSouthWestPac, a key member of the Mk 6's design team) attributed the torpedo failures to poor approach and attack techniques by submarine commanders. The depth control mechanism of the Mark 14 (designed for an earlier slower-running torpedo) was corrected in August 1942, but field trials for the exploders were not even ordered until mid-1943, when tests in Hawaii and Australia confirmed the flaws.
The Mk 6 exploder was corrected by deactivating its magnetic influence mechanism and changing the firing pin of the contact exploder from one of high-friction steel to a less-friction alloy. The modifications were retro-fitted on torpedoes in service and incorporated into new production, after which the Mark 14 became a reliable weapon.
In September 1943 the Mark 18 electric torpedo was placed into service to provide a "wakeless" torpedo, but its range and speed were less than that of the Mark 14 and it had a smaller warhead. It too showed flaws that had not been corrected by testing: its battery produced hydrogen gas that could not be vented and it showed a disturbing tendency to "run circular" (that is, to travel in a circular path back to the firing submarine). The losses of the USS Tang
USS Tang (SS-306)
USS Tang was a Balao-class submarine of World War II. She was built and launched in 1943.In her short career, the Tang sank 33 ships displacing 116,454 tons Her commanding officer received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements...
and the USS Tullibee
USS Tullibee (SS-284)
USS Tullibee , a , 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 April 1, 1942 at Mare Island, California, by the Mare Island Navy Yard. She was launched on November 11, 1942 sponsored by Mrs....
in 1944 resulted from self-inflicted hits by Mark 18 torpedoes fired from their stern tubes (which hit the submarines amidships), and the USS Wahoo
USS Wahoo (SS-238)
was a Gato-class submarine, the first United States Navy ship to be named for the wahoo, a dark blue food fish of Florida and the West Indies....
may have been severely crippled by a circular hit on her bow before being bombed by aircraft.
During World War II 314 submarines served in the United States Navy. 111 boats were in commission on 7 December 1941, with 38 of these considered modern "fleet boats", and of that number, 23 were lost. 203 submarines from the Gato
Gato class submarine
The United States Navy Gato class submarine formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II...
, Balao,
Balao class submarine
The Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 122 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 Tench
Tench class submarine
Tench-class submarines were a type of submarine built for the United States Navy between 1944 and 1951. They were an 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, with 29 lost. In total the United States Navy lost 52 boats to all causes during hostilities, and 41 of the losses were directly attributable to enemy action. 3,506 submariners were killed or missing-in-action.
At first, Japanese anti-submarine defenses
Anti-submarine weapon
An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a range of devices that are intended to act against a submarine, and its crew, to destroy the vessel or to destroy or reduce its capability as a weapon of war...
proved less than effective against U.S. submarines. Japanese sub-detection gear was not as advanced as that of some other nations. The primary Japanese anti-sub weapon for most of WWII was the depth charge. During the first part of the war, the Japanese tended to set their depth charges too shallow, and U.S. subs not trapped in shallow waters were frequently able to take advantage of depth gradient temperatures to escape from many attacks.
Historian Clay Blair
Clay Blair
Clay Blair, Jr. was an American historian, best known for his books on military history. He served on the fleet submarine Guardfish in World War II and later wrote for Time and Life magazines before becoming editor-in-chief of The Saturday Evening Post. He assisted General Omar Bradley in the...
claimed that Congressman Andrew J. May
Andrew J. May
Andrew Jackson May was a Kentucky attorney and influential New Deal-era politician, best known for his chairmanship of the House Military Affairs Committee during World War II, and his subsequent conviction for bribery...
at a press conference held in June 1943 revealed the highly sensitive fact that American submarines had a high survival rate because Japanese depth charges were typically fuze
Fuze
Fuze Beverage, commercially referred to as just Fuze , is a manufacturer of teas and non-carbonated fruit drinks enriched with vitamins. Currently the brand consists of five vitamin-infused lines: Slenderize, Refresh, Tea, Defensify, and Vitalize...
d to explode at too shallow a depth. Various press associations sent this leaked news story over their wires and many newspapers (including one in Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
), published it.
Japanese naval forces heard of May's security breach and adjusted their depth charges to explode at a more effective depth. Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood
Charles A. Lockwood
Charles Andrews Lockwood was an admiral of the United States Navy. He is known in submarine history as the legendary commander of Submarine Force Pacific Fleet during World War II...
, commander of the U.S. submarine fleet in the Pacific, later estimated that May's security breach cost the United States Navy as many as ten submarines and 800 crewmen killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
.
Other historians claim that the May Incident never happened, and that the Japanese never discovered U.S. submarine depth capabilities during the war.
In addition to resetting their depth charges to deeper depths, Japanese anti-submarine forces also began employing auto-gyro aircraft
Kayaba Ka-1
|-References:NotesBibliography* Francillon, Ph.D., René J. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1970. ISBN 0-370-00033-1 .-External links:*...
and MAD (magnetic anomaly detection) equipment to sink U.S. subs, particularly those plying major shipping channels or operating near the home islands. Despite this onslaught, U.S. sub sinkings of Japanese shipping continue to increase at a furious rate as more U.S. subs deployed each month to the Pacific. By the end of the war, U.S. submarines had destroyed more Japanese shipping than all other weapons combined, including aircraft.
Operationally, two commands in the Pacific Theater, Submarines Pacific and Submarines Southwest Pacific, conducted 1,588 war patrols, resulting in the firing of 14,748 torpedoes and the sinking of 1,392 enemy vessels of a total tonnage of 5.3 million tons. Over 200 warships were sunk, including a battleship, 8 aircraft carriers of varying sizes, 11 cruisers, 38 destroyers, 25 submarines (including 2 U-Boats), and 70 other escort vessels. Submarines Pacific was assigned 51 boats in 1941; by the end of the war 169 boats were assigned. Monthly war patrols averaged 27 in 1942 and increased to 47 in 1945, with a high of 57 patrols dispatched in May 1945.
Post-War submarines
The first launch of a cruise missileCruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
(SSM-N-8 Regulus
SSM-N-8 Regulus
The SSM-N-8A Regulus was a ship and submarine launched, nuclear armed cruise missile deployed 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 II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
fleet boat modified to carry this missile with a nuclear warhead
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
. Tunny and her sister boat USS Barbero (SSG-317) were the United States
United States
The 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 (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 (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 (SSGN-587)
USS Halibut , a unique guided missile submarine turned special operations platform, later redesignated as an attack submarine SSN-587, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the halibut.-Operational history:...
. So that no target would be left uncovered, four Regulus missiles had to be at sea at any given time. Thus, Barbero and Tunny, each of which carried two Regulus missiles, patrolled simultaneously. Growler and Grayback, with four missiles, or Halibut, with five, could patrol alone. These five submarines made 40 Regulus strategic deterrent patrols between October 1959 and July 1964.
In the 1950s, nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
partially replaced diesel-electric propulsion. The sailing of the first nuclear powered submarine, the USN "Nautilus
USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
USS Nautilus is the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine. She was the first vessel to complete a submerged transit beneath the North Pole on August 3, 1958...
" in 1955 was soon followed by similar British, French and Russian boats. Equipment was also developed to extract oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
from sea water. These two innovations, together with inertial navigation systems, gave submarines the ability to remain submerged for weeks or months, and enabled previously impossible voyages such as the crossing of the North Pole
North Pole
The 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 its surface...
beneath the Arctic ice cap
Polar ice cap
A polar ice cap is a high latitude region of a planet or natural satellite that is covered in ice. There are no requirements with respect to size or composition for a body of ice to be termed a polar ice cap, nor any geological requirement for it to be over land; only that it must be a body of...
by the USS Nautilus
USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
USS Nautilus is the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine. She was the first vessel to complete a submerged transit beneath the North Pole on August 3, 1958...
in 1958. Most of the naval submarines built since that time in the United States and the Soviet Union and its successor state the Russian Federation
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
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.
While the greater endurance and performance from nuclear reactors mean that nuclear submarines are better for long distance missions or the protection of a carrier battle-force, conventional diesel-electric submarines have continued to be produced by both nuclear and non-nuclear powers, as they can be made stealthier, except when required to run the diesel engine to recharge the ship's battery. Technological advances in sound dampening, noise isolation and cancellation have 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 propulsion
Air-independent propulsion
Air-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 led to increased sales numbers of such types of submarines.
In 1958 the USN carried out a series of trials with the USS Albacore
USS Albacore (AGSS-569)
USS Albacore was a unique research submarine that pioneered the American version of the teardrop hull form of modern submarines. The revolutionary design was derived from extensive hydrodynamic and wind tunnel testing, with an emphasis on underwater speed and maneuverability...
. Various hull and control configurations were tested to reduce drag and so allow greater underwater speed and maneuverability. The results of these trials were incorporated into the Skipjack class
Skipjack class submarine
The Skipjack class was a class of United States Navy nuclear submarines. This class was named after its lead ship, the . This new class introduced the teardrop hull and the S5W reactor to U.S. nuclear submarines. The Skipjacks were the fastest U.S...
and later submarines. From the same era is the first SSBN, the USS George Washington
USS George Washington (SSBN-598)
USS George Washington , the lead ship of her class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines, was the third United States Navy ship of the name, in honor of George Washington , first President of the United States, and the first of that name to be purpose-built as a warship.-Construction and...
.
During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
maintained large submarine fleets that engaged in cat-and-mouse games; this continues today, on a much-reduced scale. The Soviet Union suffered the loss of at least four submarines during this period: K-129
Soviet submarine K-129 (Golf II)
K-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...
was lost in 1968 (which the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
attempted to retrieve from the ocean floor with the Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
-designed ship named Glomar Explorer), K-8
Soviet submarine K-8
K-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 -219
Soviet submarine K-219
K-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 (subject of the film Hostile Waters
Hostile Waters (film)
Hostile Waters is a British 1997 television film about the loss of the K-219, a Yankee I class nuclear ballistic missile sub. The film stars Rutger Hauer as the commander of K-219 and claims to be based on the true story. The film was produced by World Productions for the BBC and HBO, in...
), and Komsomolets
Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets
K-278 Komsomolets was the only Project 685 Плавник nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Soviet Navy. The boat sank in 1989 and is currently resting on the floor of the Barents Sea, one mile deep, with its nuclear reactor and two nuclear warheads still on board...
(the only Mike class submarine) in 1989 (which held a depth record among the military submarines—1000 m, or 1300 m according to the article K-278
Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets
K-278 Komsomolets was the only Project 685 Плавник nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Soviet Navy. The boat sank in 1989 and is currently resting on the floor of the Barents Sea, one mile deep, with its nuclear reactor and two nuclear warheads still on board...
). Many other Soviet subs, such as K-19
Soviet submarine K-19
K-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, specifically the R-13 . Its keel was laid down on 17 October 1958, christened on 8 April 1959 and launched on 11 October 1959...
(first Soviet nuclear submarine, and first Soviet sub at North Pole) were badly damaged by fire or radiation leaks. The United States lost two nuclear submarines during this time: USS Thresher
USS Thresher (SSN-593)
The 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...
and Scorpion
USS Scorpion (SSN-589)
USS 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 with 99 crew members dying in the incident. The USS Scorpion is one of two nuclear submarines the U.S...
. The Thresher was lost due to equipment failure, and the exact cause of the loss of the Scorpion is not known.
The sinking of PNS Ghazi
PNS Ghazi
PNS Ghazi was Pakistan Navy 's first ever submarine, leased from United States in 1963. It saw action in the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan. The submarine could be armed with up to 28 torpedoes and, in later years, was re-fitted in Turkey for mine-laying capability...
in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
was the first submarine casualty in the South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n region.
The United Kingdom employed nuclear-powered submarines against Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
during the 1982 Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands 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 sinking of the cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
ARA General Belgrano
ARA General Belgrano
The ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Formerly the , she saw action in the Pacific theater of World War II before being sold to Argentina. After almost 31 years of service, she was sunk during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine ...
by HMS Conqueror
HMS Conqueror (S48)
HMS 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...
was the first sinking by a nuclear-powered submarine in war. During this conflict the conventional Argentinian submarine ARA Santa Fé was disabled by a Sea Skua
Sea Skua
The Sea Skua is a British lightweight short-range air-to-surface missile designed for use from helicopters against ships. It is primarily used by the Royal Navy on the Westland Lynx helicopter, although Kuwait uses it in a shore battery and on their Umm Al Maradem fast attack craft.The British...
missile, and the ARA San Luis
ARA San Luis
The ARA San Luis is a Type 209 diesel-powered submarine of the Argentine Navy. Built in Germany, San Luis has a displacement of 1,285 tonnes and was introduced to the ARA in 1978. She was struck in 1997 after an incomplete overhaul.- History :...
claimed to have made unsuccessful attacks on the British fleet.
Polar operations
_surfaced_through_artic_ice.gif)
- 1903 - Simon LakeSimon LakeSimon 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...
's submarine Protector surfaced through ice off Newport, Rhode IslandNewport, Rhode IslandNewport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 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 Naval War...
. - 1930 - operated under ice near SpitsbergenSpitsbergenSpitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
. - 1937 - Soviet submarine Krasnogvardeyets operated under ice in the Denmark StraitDenmark StraitThe Denmark Strait or Greenland Strait |Sound]]) is an oceanic strait between Greenland and Iceland...
. - 1941–45 - German U-boats operated under ice from the Barents SeaBarents SeaThe Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...
to the Laptev SeaLaptev SeaThe Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with co-ordinates of 79°N and 139°E, and ends at the Anisiy...
. - 1946 - used upward-beamed fathometer in Operation Nanook in the Davis StraitDavis 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 - used under-ice SONARSonarSonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
in Operation High Jump in the Antarctic. - 1947 - used upward-beamed echo sounder under pack ice in the Chukchi SeaChukchi 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. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...
. - 1948 - developed techniques for making vertical ascents and descents through polynyaPolynyaA polynya or polynia is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as geographical term for an area of unfrozen sea within the ice pack. It is a loanword from , , which means a natural ice hole, and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable...
s in the Chukchi Sea. - 1952 - used an expanded upward-beamed sounder array in the Beaufort SeaBeaufort SeaThe Beaufort Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort...
. - 1957 - reached 87 degrees north near Spitsbergen.
- 3 August 1958 - Nautilus used an inertial navigation systemInertial navigation systemAn 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 - surfaced through the ice at the north pole.
- 1960 - transited 900 miles under ice over the shallow (125 to 180 feet deep) Bering-Chukchi shelf.
- 1960 - transited the Northwest PassageNorthwest 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 Leninskiy Komsomol reached the north pole.
- 1971 - reached the north pole.
- 6 May 1986 - , , and , as part of LANTSUBICEX '86, surfaced together at the North Pole. First multi-submarine surfacing in history.
- 19 May 1987 - joined and at the North Pole. The first time British and Americans met at the North Pole.
- March 2007 - participated in the Joint U.S. Navy/Royal NavyRoyal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
Ice Exercise 2007 (ICEX-2007) in the Arctic Ocean with the .
Ballistic missile submarines
Ballistic missileBallistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
submarines (SSBNs or boomers in American slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
) carry submarine-launched ballistic missile
Submarine-launched ballistic missile
A submarine-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...
s (SLBM) with nuclear warheads
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
, for attacking strategic targets such as cities or missile silos anywhere in the world. They are currently universally nuclear-powered
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
, to provide the greatest stealth and endurance. (The first Soviet ballistic missile submarines were diesel-powered.) They played an important part in Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
mutual deterrence
Deterrence theory
Deterrence theory gained increased prominence as a military strategy during the Cold War with regard to the use of nuclear weapons, and features prominently in current United States foreign policy regarding the development of nuclear technology in North Korea and Iran. Deterrence theory however was...
, as both the United States and the Soviet Union had the credible ability to conduct a retaliatory strike against the other nation in the event of a first strike
First strike
In nuclear strategy, a first strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing...
. This comprised an important part of the strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...
.
.jpg)
Ohio class submarine
The Ohio class is a class of nuclear-powered submarines used by the United States Navy. The United States has 18 Ohio-class submarines:...
submarines, of which 14 are Trident II
Trident missile
The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile equipped with multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles . The Fleet Ballistic Missile is armed with nuclear warheads and is launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines . Trident missiles are carried by fourteen...
SSBNs, each carrying 24 SLBMs. The American George Washington
George Washington class submarine
The George Washington class was a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines deployed 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...
class "boomers" were named for famous Americans, and together with the Ethan Allen
Ethan Allen class submarine
The Ethan Allen class of fleet ballistic missile submarine was an evolutionary development from the George Washington class. The Ethan Allen, together with the , , , and classes comprise the "41 for Freedom."...
, Lafayette
Lafayette class submarine
The Lafayette class of submarine was an evolutionary development from the of fleet ballistic missile submarine, slightly larger and generally improved...
, James Madison
James Madison class submarine
The James Madison class of submarine was an evolutionary development from the of fleet ballistic missile submarine. They were identical to the Lafayettes except for being designed to carry the Polaris A-3 missile instead of the earlier A-2. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, select units were...
, and Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin class submarine
The Benjamin Franklin class of submarine was an evolutionary development from the of fleet ballistic missile submarine. Having quieter machinery and other improvements, they are considered a separate class. A subset of this class is the re-engineered 640 class starting with...
classes, these SSBNs comprised the Cold War-era "41 for Freedom." Later Ohio class submarines were named for states (recognizing the increase in striking power and importance, equivalent to battleships), with the exception that SSBN-730 gained the name of a Senator. The first four Ohio class vessels were equipped with Trident I, and are now being converted to carry Tomahawk guided missiles for land and shipping attack.
For Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, see List of NATO reporting names for ballistic missile submarines.
The Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
possess a single class of four ballistic missile submarines (what RN call "bombers", for their function), the Vanguard class
Vanguard class submarine
The Vanguard class are the Royal Navy's current nuclear ballistic missile submarines , each armed with up to 16 Trident II Submarine-launched ballistic missiles...
with Trident missiles. The Royal Navy's previous ballistic missile submarine class was the Resolution class
Resolution class submarine
The Resolution-class submarine armed with the Polaris missile was the United Kingdom's primary nuclear deterrent from the late 1960s to 1994, when they were replaced by the Vanguard-class submarine carrying the Trident II.-Background:...
, with Polaris missiles, which also consisted of four boats. The Resolutions, named after battleships to convey the fact they were the new capital ship
Capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...
s, were decommissioned when the Vanguards entered service in the 1990s.
France operates a force de frappe
Force de frappe
The Force de Frappe is the designation of what used to be a triad of air-, sea- and land-based nuclear weapons intended for dissuasion, and consequential deterrence...
, including a nuclear ballistic submarine fleet made up of one SSBN Redoutable class
Redoutable class submarine
The Redoutable class submarine is a ballistic missile submarine class of the French Marine Nationale . In French, the type is called Sous-marin Nucléaire Lanceur d'Engins , literally "Missile-launching nuclear submarine"...
and three SSBNs of the Triomphant class. One additional SSBN of the Triomphant class is under construction.
The People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
's People's Liberation Army Navy
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...
's SLBM inventory is relatively new. China launched its first nuclear armed submarine in April 1981. The PLAN currently has 1 Xia
Xia class submarine
The 6,500-ton Type 092 Daqingyu submarine was the first ballistic missile-carrying, nuclear-powered submarine class deployed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, and the first SSBN designed and built in Asia...
class ("Type 92") at roughly 8,000 tons displacement. The Type 92 is equipped with 12 SLBM launching tubes. China's SLBM program is built around its JL-1
JL-1
The Julang-1, also known as the JL-1 and in US nomenclature as the CSS-N-3, is China's first submarine launched nuclear ballistic missile.-History:...
inventory. The Chinese Navy is estimated to have 24 JL-1s. The JL-1 is basically a modified DF-21
DF-21
The Dong-Feng 21 is a two-stage, solid-propellant, single-warhead medium-range ballistic missile developed by China Changfeng Mechanics and Electronics Technology Academy. Development started in the late 1960s and was completed around 1985-86, but it was not deployed until 1991...
.
The PLAN plans to replace its JL-1 with an unspecified number of the longer ranged, more modern JL-2
JL-2
The JL-2 is a Chinese second-generation intercontinental-range submarine-launched ballistic missile which has a two-stage, solid–liquid-fuelled propulsion design. Accurate specifications of the new missile are hard to obtain and substantiate due to the secretive nature of the program...
s. Deployment on the JL-2 reportedly began in late 2003.
Attack submarines
Attack submarines are fast, long range boats with torpedoes and cruise missiles to attack submarines, ships and land targets. They carry sonars, and other sensors, for target location and fire control systems for weapon launching.In 1982 a study group was set up by the USN to define the requirements for a new SSN, later known as Seawolf
Seawolf class submarine
The Seawolf class is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines in service with the United States Navy. The class was the intended successor to the , ordered at the end of the Cold War in 1989. At one time, an intended fleet of 29 submarines was to be built over a ten-year period, later...
. The submarine was commissioned in 1997. It had twice the weapon load of the Los Angeles
Los Angeles class submarine
The Los Angeles class, sometimes called the LA class or the 688 class, is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines that forms the backbone of the United States submarine fleet. With 43 submarines on active duty and 19 retired, the Los Angeles class is the most numerous nuclear powered...
class, with a new combat system (BSY-2) and new sonars. Unfortunately its cost proved unacceptable and so a more affordable design was started. This Virginia class had a reduced weapon load but with a wide variety of types.
The Royal Navy is building the Astute
Astute class submarine
The Astute-class is the latest class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines in service with the Royal Navy. The class sets a new standard for the Royal Navy in terms of weapons load, communication facilities and stealth. The boats are being constructed by BAE Systems Submarine Solutions at...
-class submarines as successors to its Swiftsure
Swiftsure class submarine
The Swiftsure class were a class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines in service with the Royal Navy from the early 1970s until 2010....
and Trafalgar
Trafalgar class submarine
The Trafalgar class is a class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines in service with the Royal Navy. They are a direct follow on from the Swiftsure class and were, until the introduction of the Astute class, the Royal Navy's most advanced nuclear fleet submarines.Seven boats were built and...
classes. The first was launched in 2007.
The latest Chinese attack submarine class is the Type 093
Type 093 submarine
The Type 093 is a nuclear powered attack submarine class deployed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. These boats are expected to replace the older Type 091 SSNs currently in service...
(Shang), first launched in 2002, which is replacing the Type 091 (Han) class.
The Russian 949A (Oscar II
Oscar class submarine
The Project 949 and Project 949A Soviet Navy/Russian Navy cruise missile submarines ....
) SSN was built from about 1989 to the late 90s. Older attack submarines have been decommissioned.
In Australia six Collins-class SSKs were built between 1996 and 2003, while Sweden has built three A19 SSKs.
The French Barracuda-class submarine is planned but will not replace its Rubis
Rubis class submarine
The Rubis type is a class of first-generation nuclear attack submarines of the French Navy. They are the most compact nuclear attack submarines to date.All submarines of the class are named after gemstones.-History:...
attack submarines until 2016.
Tourist Submarines
These boats are lead-acid battery powered, being charged between runs from support facilities. They may have a surface speed of a few knots but generally their underwater speed is less than a knot. Their depth capabilities are often only a few metres. Some are capable of carrying over 50 passengers. They are found in the major tourist resorts in the warm water regions.Private submarines
These can be used for a variety of purposes from scientific research, underwater filming and construction to search and salvage. They often can be fitted with a number of tools with lights, cameras, acoustic tracking and communications. They tend to be 2 or 3 person craft, sometimes with diver lockout facilities. Alternatively they can be simple craft used to aid divers.Human powered submarines
Races are held in the David Taylor Model BasinDavid Taylor Model Basin
The David Taylor Model Basin is one of the largest ship model basins — test facilities for the development of ship design — in the world...
in the U.S. over a 100 m course. The 9th races were held in 2007 at which 22 teams took part, with 26 submarines. A speed record of 8 knots was set for a two man submarine and 5 knots for a one man submarine.
Early incidents
Up to August 1914 there were 68 submarine accidents. There were 23 collisions, 7 battery gas explosions, 12 gasoline explosions, and 13 sinkings due to hull openings not being closed.Cold War incidents
There have been a number of accidental sinkings but also some collisions between submarines. Examples of the former include the loss of in the English Channel in 1951 due to the snort mast fracturing, in 1963 due to a pipe weld failure during a test dive, however many other scenarios have been proven to be probable causes of sinking, most notably a battery malfunction causing a torpedo to detonate internally, and the loss of the Russian Kursk on 12 August 2000 probably due to a torpedo explosion. An example of the latter was the incident between the Russian K-276Soviet submarine K-276
B-276 Kostroma is a Russian Sierra class submarine. She was launched in 1986, commissioned in 1987, and named K-276 Crab until 1992. The Kostroma was built at Gorky and later towed to Severodvinsk for completion...
and the in February 1992.
Incidents since 2000
Since submarines have been actively deployed, there have been several incidents involving submarines that were not part of major combat. Most of these incidents were during the Cold War, but some are more recent. Since the year 2000 there have been 9 major naval incidents involving submarines. There were three RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n submarine incidents, in two of which the submarines in question were lost, along with three United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
submarine incidents, one Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
incident, one Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and one Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n incident. In August 2005, the Russian PRIZ, an AS-28
AS-28
AS-28 is a of the Russian Navy, which entered service in 1986. It was designed for submarine rescue operations by the Lazurit design bureau in Nizhny Novgorod...
rescue submarine was trapped by cables and/or nets off of Petropavlovsk, and saved when a British ROV cut them free in a massive international effort.
Propulsion
Until the advent of nuclear marine propulsionNuclear marine propulsion
Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship by a nuclear reactor. Naval nuclear propulsion is propulsion that specifically refers to naval warships...
, most 20th century submarines used batteries for running underwater and gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
(petrol) or diesel engine
Diesel engine
A 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...
s on the surface and to recharge the batteries. Early boats used gasoline but this quickly gave way to kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, 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. Initially the diesel or gasoline engine and the electric motor were on the same shaft, which also drove a propeller with clutches between each of them. This allowed the engine to drive the electric motor as a generator to recharge the batteries and also propel the submarine if required. The clutch between the motor and the engine would be disengaged when the boat dived so that the motor could be used to turn the propeller. The motor could have more than one armature on the shaft—these would be electrically coupled in series for slow speed and parallel for high speed (known as "group down" and "group up" respectively).
In the 1930s the principle was modified for some submarine designs, particularly those of the U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and the British U-class
British U class submarine
The British U class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War...
. The engine was no longer attached to the motor/propeller drive shaft but drove a separate generator, which would drive the motors on the surface and/or recharge the batteries. This diesel-electric
Diesel-electric
Diesel-electric transmission or diesel-electric powertrain is used by a number of vehicle and ship types for providing locomotion.A diesel-electric transmission system includes a diesel engine connected to an electrical generator, creating electricity that powers electric traction motors...
propulsion allowed much more flexibility, for example the submarine could travel slowly whilst the engines were running at full power to recharge the batteries as quickly as possible, reducing time on the surface, or use its snorkel
Submarine snorkel
A submarine snorkel is a device which allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. Navy personnel often refer to it as the snort.-History:...
. Also it was now possible to insulate
Soundproofing
Soundproofing 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 reflect or absorb the energy of the sound waves, using...
the noisy diesel engines from the pressure hull making the submarine quieter.
There were other power sources attempted—oil-fired steam turbines powered the British "K" class submarines
British K class submarine
The 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 War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and in following years but these were not very successful.
This was selected to give them the necessary surface speed to keep up with the British battle fleet.
Steam power was resurrected in the 1950s with the advent of the nuclear-powered steam turbine driving a generator, which is now used in all large submarines. There was an attempt to use a very advanced lead cooled fast reactor
Lead cooled fast reactor
The lead-cooled fast reactor is a nuclear power Generation IV reactor that features a fast neutron spectrum, molten lead or lead-bismuth eutectic coolant. Options include a range of plant ratings, including a number of 50 to 150 MWe units featuring long-life, pre-manufactured cores...
on Project 705 "Lira"
Alfa class submarine
The Soviet Union/Russian Navy Project 705 was a class of hunter/killer nuclear powered submarines. The class is also known by the NATO reporting name of Alfa...
but it's maintenance was considered too expensive. By removing the requirement for atmospheric oxygen these submarines can stay submerged indefinitely so long as food supplies remain (air is recycled and fresh water distilled from seawater). These vessels always have a small battery and diesel engine/generator installation for emergency use when the reactors have to be shut down.
Anaerobic propulsion was employed by the first mechanically driven submarine Ictineo II in 1864. Ictineo's engine used a chemical mix containing a peroxide
Peroxide
A peroxide is a compound containing an oxygen–oxygen single bond or the peroxide anion .The O−O group is called the peroxide group or peroxo group. In contrast to oxide ions, the oxygen atoms in the peroxide ion have an oxidation state of −1.The simplest stable peroxide is hydrogen peroxide...
compound, that generated heat for steam propulsion while at the same time solved the problem of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
renovation in an hermetic
Hermetic seal
A hermetic seal is the quality of being airtight. In common usage, the term often implies being impervious to air or gas. When used technically, it is stated in conjunction with a specific test method and conditions of usage.-Etymology :...
container for breathing purposes. The system wasn't employed again until 1940 when the German Navy tested a system employing the same principles, the Walter
Hellmuth Walter
Hellmuth Walter was a German engineer who pioneered research into rocket engines and gas turbines...
turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid 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 move and...
, on the experimental V-80 submarine and later on the naval U-791 submarine.
At the end of the Second World War the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Russians experimented with hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is the simplest peroxide and an oxidizer. Hydrogen peroxide is a clear liquid, slightly more viscous than water. In dilute solution, it appears colorless. With its oxidizing properties, hydrogen peroxide is often used as a bleach or cleaning agent...
/kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
(paraffin) engines, which could be used both above and below the surface. The results were not encouraging enough for this technique to be adopted at the time, although the Russians deployed a class of submarines with this engine type code named Quebec
Quebec class submarine
The 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 a failure. Today several navies, notably Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
now use air-independent propulsion
Air-independent propulsion
Air-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, which substitute liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen — abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries — is one of the physical forms of elemental oxygen.-Physical properties:...
for hydrogen peroxide.
The German Type 212 submarine
Type 212 submarine
The German Type 212 class, also Italian Todaro class, is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG and Fincantieri S.p.a. for the German and Italian Navy. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion system using...
uses nine 34-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell
Fuel cell
A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used...
as air-independent propulsion, which makes it first series production submarine using fuel cell.
Most small modern commercial submarines that are not expected to operate independently use batteries that can be recharged by a mother-ship after every dive.
Towards the end of the 20th century, some submarines began to be fitted with pump-jet
Pump-jet
A pump-jet, hydrojet, 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 often less efficient than a propeller, they are significantly quieter, giving an important tactical advantage.
A possible propulsion system for submarines is the magnetohydrodynamic drive
Magnetohydrodynamic drive
A magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD propulsor is a method for propelling seagoing vessels using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, using magnetohydrodynamics. The working principle involves electrification of the propellant which can then be directed by a magnetic field,...
, or "caterpillar drive", which has no moving parts. It was popularized in the movie version of The Hunt for Red October
The Hunt for Red October
The 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 Ryan.The novel was originally published by the U.S...
, written by Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
, which portrayed it as a virtually silent system. (In the book, a form of propulsor was used rather than an MHD.) Although some experimental surface ships have been built with this propulsion system, speeds have not been as high as those hoped. In addition, the noise created by bubbles, and the higher power settings a submarine's reactor would need, mean that it is unlikely to be considered for any military purpose.
The schnorchel
Drebbel's 1620 submarine is thought to have incorporated floats with tubes to allow air down to the rowers. The steam powered submarines used to run with their hulls awash with air being taken down through their conning towers. During the First World War the British are believed to have experimented with a similar concept to the schnorkel, that is a mast through which air is drawn.Diesel submarines needed air to run their engines, and so carried very large batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
for submerged travel. These limited the speed and range of the submarines while submerged. The schnorchel
Submarine snorkel
A submarine snorkel is a device which allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. Navy personnel often refer to it as the snort.-History:...
(used by prewar Dutch submarines) was used after 1943 to allow German submarines to run just under the surface, attempting to avoid detection visually and by radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
. After the war the concept became widely used and the term was anglicised to "shnorkel" or "snorkel" in English. The German navy also experimented with engines that would use hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is the simplest peroxide and an oxidizer. Hydrogen peroxide is a clear liquid, slightly more viscous than water. In dilute solution, it appears colorless. With its oxidizing properties, hydrogen peroxide is often used as a bleach or cleaning agent...
to allow diesel fuel to be used while submerged, but technical difficulties were great.
Sensors
Originally submarines were navigated using a porthole but the periscope was introduced by World War I. Passive sonarSonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
was introduced in submarines during the First World War but active sonar ASDIC did not come into service until the inter-war period. Today the submarine may have a wide variety of sonar arrays, from bow mounted to trailing ones. There are often upward-looking under-ice sonars as well as depth sounders.
Radar came in during the 1930s, with radar warning receivers in the Second World War.
Fire control
Originally the submarine's torpedoes were aimed by pointing the boat in the correct direction. This was determined from the targets course and speed by measurements of angle and range via the periscope. The necessary calculation was first carried out manually and later by mechanical calculators. Today it is achieved by digital computers with display screens providing all necessary information on the torpedo status and ship status.Weapons and countermeasures
Early submarines carried torpedoes externally and then internally. In the latter case both bow mounted and stern mounted tubes were used but today only the former are still employed. Some specialised mine laying submarines were built. The modern submarine is capable of firing many types of weapon from its launch tubes, including UAVs.Up until the end of WW2 it was common to fit deck guns to submarines to allow them to sink ships without wasting torpedoes.
German submarines in World War II had rubber coatings and could launch chemical devices to provide a decoy when the boat was under attack. These proved to be not very effective as sonar operators came to distinguish between the decoy and the submarine. Modern submarines can launch a variety of devices for the same purpose, as well as having coatings.
Communications
Wireless was used to provide communication to and from submarines in the First World War. With time the type, range and bandwidth of the communications systems have increased. Because of the danger of intercept, transmissions by a submarine are minimised. Various periscope mounted aerials have been developed to allow communication without surfacing.Navigation
The standard navigation system for early submarines was by eye, with use of a compass. The gyrocompass was introduced in the early part of the 20th century and inertial navigation in the 1950s. The use of satellite based navigation is of limited use to submarines, except at periscope depth or when surfaced.Escape
After the sinking of the A1 submarine in 1904, lifting eyes were fitted to British submarines and in 1908 air-locks and escape helmets were provided. The RN experimented with various types of escape apparatus but it was not until 1924 that the "Davis Submerged Escape ApparatusDavis Submerged Escape Apparatus
The Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus , was an early type of oxygen rebreather invented in 1910 by Sir Robert Davis, head of Siebe Gorman and Co. Ltd., inspired by the earlier Fleuss system...
" came in. The USN used the similar "Momsen Lung
Momsen lung
The Momsen lung was a primitive underwater rebreather used before and during World War II by American submariners as emergency escape gear. The Momsen lung was invented by Charles B. Momsen . Submariners would train in a 100-foot deep escape training tower using this apparatus...
". The French used "Joubert's apparatus" and the Germans used "Draeger's apparatus".
Rescue submarines for evacuating a disabled submarine's crew came in the 1970s and the British unmanned vehicle was used for recovering an entangled Russian submarine crew in 2005. A new NATO Submarine Rescue System
Nato Submarine Rescue System
The NATO Submarine Rescue System is a multi-national project to develop an international submarine rescue system. The system will provide a rescue capability primarily to the partner nations of France, Norway and the UK but also to NATO and allied nations.The NSRS is managed by Rolls-Royce and...
entered service in 2007.
General
- Submarine warfareSubmarine warfareNaval 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...
- Anti-submarine warfareAnti-submarine warfareAnti-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....
- Anti-submarine weaponAnti-submarine weaponAn anti-submarine weapon is any one of a range of devices that are intended to act against a submarine, and its crew, to destroy the vessel or to destroy or reduce its capability as a weapon of war...
- SubmarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
- AS-28AS-28AS-28 is a of the Russian Navy, which entered service in 1986. It was designed for submarine rescue operations by the Lazurit design bureau in Nizhny Novgorod...
Russian Rescue Submarine Saved - Submarines in the United States NavySubmarines in the United States NavyThere 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...
- Submarine communications cableSubmarine communications cableA submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean....
- Submarine power cableSubmarine power cableSubmarine power cables are major transmission cables for carrying electric power below the surface of the water. These are called "submarine" because they usually carry electric power beneath salt water but it is also possible to use submarine power cables beneath fresh water...
- Timeline of underwater technologyTimeline of underwater technologyThis 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...
- Midget submarineMidget 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...
- Submarine aircraft carrierSubmarine 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...
- SubmersibleSubmersibleA submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
- Semi-submersibleSemi-submersibleA semi-submersible is a specialised marine vessel with good stability and seakeeping characteristics. The semi-submersible vessel design is commonly used in a number of specific offshore roles such as for offshore drilling rigs, safety vessels, oil production platforms and heavy lift cranes.The...
- Deep Submergence Rescue VehicleDeep Submergence Rescue VehicleA 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 other nations have different designations for their vehicles.- Chinese models :The People's...
- Autonomous underwater vehicleAutonomous Underwater VehicleAn autonomous underwater vehicle is a robot which travels underwater without requiring input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification that includes non-autonomous remotely operated underwater vehicles...
- Modern Naval tacticsModern naval tacticsThe 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...
- Communication with submarinesCommunication with submarinesCommunication with submarines is difficult because radio waves do not 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...
- Submarine sandwichSubmarine sandwichA submarine sandwich, also known as a sub among other names, is a sandwich that consists of a long roll of Italian or French bread, split lengthwise either into two pieces or opened in a "V" on one side, and filled with various varieties of meat, cheese, vegetables, seasonings, and sauces. The...
, named for its submarine-like shape - Submarine simulatorSubmarine simulatorA 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 - List of submarine actions
- List of submarine museums
- List of sunken nuclear submarines
- Depth chargeDepth chargeA depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
and Depth charge (cocktail) - Nuclear navyNuclear navyNuclear 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...
- List of countries with submarines
Articles on specific vessels
- Nerwin (NR-1)NR-1 Deep Submergence CraftThe Deep Submergence Vessel NR-1 was a unique United States Navy nuclear-powered ocean engineering and research submarine. It was built by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Groton, Connecticut. It was launched on January 25, 1969, completed its initial sea trials August 19, 1969,...
- Vesikko (museum submarine)
- ORP OrzełORP OrzelORP Orzeł was the lead ship of her class of submarines serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. Her name means Eagle in Polish. The boat is best known for the Orzeł incident, her escape from internment in neutral Estonia during the early stages of the Second World War.-History:Orzeł was laid...
- Ships named NautilusShips named NautilusNautilus is common ship's name in several languages:* HMS Nautilus - nine surface ships , and one submarine * USS Nautilus - two surface ships , and two submarines...
- List of submarines of the Royal Navy
- List of submarines of the United States Navy
- List of Soviet submarines
- List of U-boats
- KaikoKaikowas a remotely operated underwater vehicle built by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology for exploration of the deep sea. Kaikō was the second of only three vessels ever to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, as of 2010...
(deepest submarine dive)
Articles on specific submarine classes
- List of submarine classes
- List of submarine classes of the Royal Navy
- List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes
- List of United States submarine classes
External links
- John Holland: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/holland.htm
- German Submarines of WWII: http://www.uboat.net
- Submaine Simulations: http://www.subsim.com
- German Midget Submarine - Seehund: http://www.one35th.com/seehund/sh_index.html
- Submarines of WWI: http://www.dropbears.com/w/ww1subs/index.htm
- German Midget Submarine - Molch: http://www.one35th.com/submarine/molch_main.htm
- Role of the Modern Submarine: http://www.submarinehistory.com/21stCentury.html
- Submariners of WWII: http://www.oralhistoryproject.com—World War II Submarine Veterans History Project
- German submarines using peroxide: http://www.dataphone.se/~ms/ubootw/boats_walter-system.htm
- record breaking Japanese Submarines: http://www.combinedfleet.com/ss.htm
- German U-Boats 1935–1945: http://www.u-boot-archiv.de
- U.S. ship photo archive: http://www.navsource.org
- Israeli missile trials: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/missile/popeye-t.htm
- The Sub Report: http://www.thesubreport.com
- The Invention of the Submarine: http://www.vectorsite.net/twsub1.html
- Submersibles and Technology by Graham Hawkes http://www.deepflight.com/subs/index.htm
- Submarine of Karl Shilder http://www.informatics.org/museum/milrock.html
- Royal Navy submarine history http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/3164.html
- A century of Royal Navy submarine operations http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/cno/n87/usw/issue_12/holland.html
- Royal Navy submarines http://www.solarnavigator.net/royal_navy_submarines.htm
- Still floating submarine Lembit (1936) http://www.meremuuseum.ee/et/ships/lembit.html
- American Society of Safety Engineers. Journal of Professional Safety. Submarine Accidents: A 60-Year Statistical Assessment. C. Tingle. Sept. 2009. pp. 31–39. Ordering full article: https://www.asse.org/professionalsafety/indexes/2009.php; or Reproduction less graphics/tables: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-government/12939133-1.html.