Science: The Atom Goes to Sea

The U.S. nuclear navy is growing so fast, says the trade magazine Nucleonics, that its demand for reactors and other tricky equipment is threatening to block the development of peaceful nuclear power. The Navy’s building program, which passed Congress last week, calls for 30 seagoing reactors and six landbound experimental prototypes. Navy officers and Navy contractors are busily learning atomic arts. They all know that nuclear power is sure to dominate the Navy in the near future.

The cause of all this excitement was the sensational success of the nuclear submarine Nautilus, which cruised 69,138 miles, more than half of them submerged, on a single charge of uranium fuel. She never had a breakdown, and her performance forced the Navy’s heavy thinkers to rewrite the textbooks of naval warfare.

No Ducts. The most obvious use for nuclear power was to enable submarines to cruise submerged for long periods out of contact with the air, but the success of the Nautilus convinced doubters in the Navy that nearly all ships would benefit too. Nuclear carriers, needing no fuel oil, can carry twice as much fuel for their brood of airplanes. Their nuclear boilers discharge no combustion gases, so their superstructures will be clear of the enormous ducts that clutter oil-burning carriers. This will leave more space for vital radar and airplane-handling equipment.

Except in combat, oil-burning warships generally steam slowly, to conserve fuel. Nuclear ships can cruise around the earth at top speed, and reach their home ports with their nuclear bunkers still undrained. This is an enormous tactical advantage. A nuclear task force can stay at sea for months, always maintaining a speed that makes it a difficult target.

The Navy has authorized one nuclear missile cruiser (the U.S.S. Long Beach). A nuclear carrier is in the works, and five more are contemplated. Nuclear destroyers will be difficult because their reactors will have to be lighter than any known today, but their ultimate success is considered sure. They will stay at sea indefinitely, while conventional types must be refueled every week or so.

Sneaky Killers. The fastest growing part of the nuclear Navy is the submarine service, which has a soulmate affinity for nuclear power. With two nuclear submarines (Nautilus and Sea Wolf) in commission, 17 more* are abuilding or authorized, and more will be ordered when the Navy gets the money. They will be of many types, from small, sneaky “killers” that lie in wait for enemy subs, to missile launchers that can attack an enemy homeland from far out at sea.

Nuclear submarines may prove to be faster than any surface ship. Reason: a ship that moves in the “interface” between water and air spends much of its power creating waves in the water, and this resistance increases steeply with increasing speed. A submerged submarine makes no waves. If it is properly designed to minimize skin friction and turbulence in the wake, it can move faster than a wavemaking surface ship of the same power. Conventional non-nuclear submarines are slow underwater because their electric engines must use with utmost economy the power stored in their batteries, but one non-nuclear submarine, the Albacore, was specially built to see what a submarine could do if her hull were designed for underwater speed, and her electric propulsion strengthened a little.

Hydrobatics. The Albacore, in her way, is just as successful as the Nautilus. Even with her comparatively weak electric power, she is astonishingly fast (figure secret), and she maneuvers underwater like a stunting airplane. Her “pilot and copilot” (so the Navy calls them) sit strapped into bucket seats, steering the gamboling Albacore with airplane-type controls. During “hydrobatics” the crewmen cling to leather loops like subway straphangers.

The most exciting prospect in the Navy today is the marriage of the Nautilus and the Albacore. The first child of these parents will be the Skipjack, already under construction by Electric Boat at Groton, Conn. She will have Nautilus propulsion in an Albacore hull, and she may turn out to be the fastest ship ever built. So sure is the Navy of the Skipjack’s success that it has ordered six more submarines like her.

The Skipjack and her sisters may prove to be the capital ships of future naval warfare. Twisting and turning many hundred feet down at high speed, they will be hard to detect and almost impossible to hit, even with nuclear explosives. They will be faster than torpedoes from killer submarines, and before any kind of surface-launched weapon gets down to their level, they can be safely away. They will seldom surface, and when they are hunted by airplanes or surface vessels, they can often take refuge in a layer of water whose slightly different temperature confuses sonar gear. In World War III, the safest place for a fighting man may be in the hydrobatic hull of a nuclear submarine.

*Including the Skate, Swordfish, Sargo, Sea-dragon, Skipjack, Triton, Halibut, Scamp, Scorpion, Sculpin, Shark, Snook.