ARMED FORCES: Triton & Skate

The unfettered fancy of Jules Verne never conjured up such a monstrous metallic whale. Verne’s fictional Naiitilus, 232 ft. long, could have nestled snugly in the belly of Triton, the eighth nuclear-powered submarine to join the U.S. fleet, scheduled for launching this week in the Thames River at Groton, Conn.

Triton is the largest submarine ever launched. She displaces 5,850 tons, measures 447½ ft. in length and 37 ft. at the beam, carries two nuclear reactors and a crew of 148, can make a zippy 30 surface knots. By comparison the Nautilus, first U.S. nuclear sub, displaces 2,980 tons, is 300 ft. long, has a 28-ft. beam, one reactor. The Triton, in fact, is not much smaller and slower than a light cruiser of the U.S.’s San Diego class.

Unlike her seven predatory sister subs, the triple-decked, $109 million Triton is principally a submersible combat detection and information center, designed to move on the surface with a fast carrier task force, her radar combing the sea miles. If necessary, she can sink to the deeps for weeks on end, lying tirelessly off some hostile coast. Her twin reactors—each more powerful than the U.S.S. Nautilus’ single reactor—give her an awesome range without refueling: 100,000 miles.

Beneath the Arctic ice last week for a several-weeks stay was the second U.S. submarine in eight days to take the short route to the North Pole: the nuclear-powered Skate. The first, Nautilus, ducked under the Pacific and emerged six days later in the Atlantic, mostly to prove it could be done. The Skate, skippered by young (37) Commander James Calvert, has popped up several times in ice gaps —within missile range of Russia. Traveling since then in expanding circles around the top of the world, Skate returns next month to New London, Conn. By then, Skate will have gathered vital new information on the salinity, temperature gradient and crust thickness of the icebound Arctic Sea.