SKIPJACK class

In 1959, the US Navy put into service the Skipjack nuclear attack submarines (SSN) class, in which two newly conceived concepts joined. In this class was joined the installation of one S5W nuclear reactor in a teardrop shaped hull, in the style of the experimental USS Albacore submarine, which resulted in an exceptionally fast and maneuverable submarine when submerged. They had a sail of enormous dimensions and the forward hull hydroplanes were installed on it, in such a way that greatly reduced the flow noise that disturbed the bow mounted sonar. The shape of the hull made the sonar much more effective at high speed, although unfortunately they were very noisy boats. They only had one screw, which was not very popular, but it had been shown that this maximized the speed under water thanks to the smoothness of the hull lines and its fat and shorter design. The class was composed by six boats that were: SSN-585 Skipjack, SSN-588 Scamp, SSN-589 Scorpion, SSN-590 Sculpin, SSN-591 Shark and SSN-592 Snook. On May 22, 1968, the SS-589 Scorpion was lost with all its crew in an unfortunate accident, but the rest of the class offered useful services for many years until they were finally decommissioned between 1986 and 1990.

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