Encyclopedia > List of United States submarine classes
Submarines of the United States Navy are built in classes, using a single design for a number of boats. Minor variations occur as improvements are incorporated into the design, so later boats of a class may be more capable than earlier. Also, boats are modified, sometimes extensively, while in service, creating departures from the class standard. However, in general, all boats of a class are noticeably similar.
Occasionally, a class will consist of a single ship as a prototype, or for experimental use; an example is USS Albacore (AGSS-569), which used an unprecedented hull design. In this list such single boat 'classes' are marked with '(unique)'.
This was a two ship class intended to prototype small submarines for wartime use due to the (false) belief that larger submarines could not be mass produced.
The first attempt to build a standard nuclear submarine, she was essentially a nuclearTang. This was the last class designed with surface operations in mind.
A purpose built cruise missile submarine. When cruise missiles were superceded in the strategic role by ballistic missiles, she was redesignated a fast attack (SSN) submarine.
The Tullibee was a prototype "hunter-killer" (SSKN) submarine, the nuclear powered equivalent of the Barracuda class. She was built to test the new bow sonar and amidships torpedo room configuration that is now standard for US submarines. Also like the Barracuda and Mackerel classes she was also an attempt to build a smaller cheaper submarine. Like all such attempts she proved inadequate in service and was not repeated.
The Ohio class is unusual in having two types of submarine with the same class name and number. This is caused by the conversion and redesignation of the first four submarines from SSBN to SSGN
The Seawolf class have numbers out of the traditional sequence because they were numbered according to the name of the development project, 'Attack Submarine'(SSN) for the '21st Century', hence SSN-21.
The names of Royal Navy submarineclasses, including ballistic missile submarines, are letter-based; thus, all boats of the Swiftsure class begin with the letter S and the Trafalgars, the letter T. Royal Navy submarines were originally designated alphanumerically, such as HMS A1 of the A-class of 1903 (built by the pioneer designer, John P. Holland).
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.
It was the submarine of the Polish inventor Stefan Drzewiecki—50 units were built in 1881 for Russian government.
The Soviet Union suffered the loss of at least four submarines during this period: K-129 was lost in 1968, K 8 in 1970, K -219 in 1986, and Komsomolets (the only Mike classsubmarine) in 1989 (which held a depth record among the military submarines—1000 m).
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