This US Navy Super Submarine Made History Thanks to A Very Special Feature That Was Never Duplicated

Steve Weintz

Security,

USS Triton had two S4G nuclear reactors to drive her twin screws, the only U.S. Navy sub to ever have such a powerplant.

In 1960, the Eisenhower era was ending and Ike sought valedictory measures to cap his substantial presidency. To a summit in Geneva with Nikita Khrushchev, a definitive arms-control agreement and progress in responding to Sputnik, the White House added a naval adventure worthy of Captain Cook.

The submerged circumnavigation of the world by the USS Triton stands as one of the great sea stories of all time, and was widely publicized in part due to the participation of the National Geographic Society. Triton made history not only with her maiden voyage — the submerged circumnavigation was her shakedown cruise — but with her design.

Triton was the largest submarine ever built when she was launched in 1959 — larger even than Japan’s Sen-Toku submarine aircraft carriers. Like each of the first eight American nuclear subs, she was a one-off: Nautilus proved nuclear propulsion and Halibut was the first nuclear missile sub and later, the first nuke special-ops sub. Triton was designed for a very special mission: fleet radar picket.

The radar picket role was a response to the new age of carrier-based naval warfare, where fleets without long-distance aircraft detection were doomed. Destroyers and other fast surface ships had filled this role in World War II and Korea, but were seen as increasingly vulnerable to air attack. Submarines were tried as survivable radar pickets, and several very large diesel subs were built for the role. Radar effectiveness depended on electrical power, however, and any fleet sub would now need to keep up with the fast new super-carriers of the Forrestal class. Only nuclear power seemed to fit the bill.

Triton had two S4G nuclear reactors to drive her twin screws, the only U.S. Navy sub to ever have such a powerplant. She was so large her hull accommodated three decks, one of them a fully-equipped Combat Information Center, as well as crew berthing with 96 bunks and two separate chief petty officers’ quarters.