Existing comment:
USS Albacore:
Commissioned on 5 December 1953, under the command of Lt Cmdr Jon Boyes, USNA 1944, and "piloted" by Lt Ted Davis, USNA 1947, Alabacore was the first true underwater ship. She was built as an experiment to explore new ideas for ship design. Her streamlined shape, which made her fast and quiet, was tested in a wind tunnel. Today's submarines, marrying the teardrop hull form and nuclear propulsion, are the direct descendants of Albacore and Nautilus.
Albacore spent almost twenty years as an experimental ship before being decommissioned in 1971. She is now at a museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The Technological Battle:
The long years of the Cold War were marked not only by hot confrontations on the battlefield but also by technological competition. This was a competition of intelligence, creativity, and innovation. Both sides generated increasingly complex and sophisticated ships, planes, weapons, and weapons systems in the hope they would provide the winning edge in battle. Naval Academy graduates were at the forefront of the technological battlefield.
Carriers:
The size of atomic bombs limited the Navy's ability to employ them. Big bombs needed big aircraft and new, larger aircraft carriers. The Navy's attempt to achieve a nuclear capability, however, became embroiled in an inter-service rivalry for limited budgets, especially since the Air Force heavily promoted its B-36 bomber.
In the end, the Korean War would prove the value and effectiveness of the Navy and naval aviation. The P-36 provided useless in a non-nuclear war and soon passed into history.
On 29 July 1948, President Harry S Truman approved a new 65,000 ton aircraft carrier. The USS United States would be large enough to handle bombers carrying the massive atomic weapons of the day. The keel had just been laid in 1949 when Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson abruptly cancelled construction.
In 1955, the Navy commissioned the USS Forrestal, named for James V Forrestal, Secretary of the navy and the first Secretary of Defense. In the Forrestal and its successors, the Navy realized not only nuclear capability, but also the ability to respond to crises rapidly and flexibly. Aircraft carriers continue to serve in the 21st century.
[Note: Cost of the USS Forrestal was $200 million. The ship was decommissioned in 1993 and is to be sunk as an artificial reef.]
The Air Force contended that their Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" bomber was the only airplane needed to deliver atomic bombs. Its intercontinental range would render the Navy's carriers obsolete, relegating the Navy itself to mere transport service.
Submarines:
During World War II, submarines played vital roles in the German naval blockade of England and the American blockade of Japan. But wartime subs were essentially surface vessels that could submerge for attack or defense; they had limited speed and endurance under water.
The introduction of nuclear power into subs changed their character, making them true underwater vessels. And the marriage of an undersea ship with ballistic missiles changed their strategic role.
Ballistic Missiles:
In 1955, American intelligence reported that the Soviet Union was developing an atomic weapon that could be delivered by a ballistic missile of intercontinental range. The Navy Special Projects Office was created to develop in [sic] response to the threat.
Director Rear Adm William Raborn proposed a small rocket fueled by a solid propellant. Approval was granted. Within three months, the Special Projects Office had developed the Polaris, a missile small enough to fit within the hull of a submarine.
On 20 July 1960, the USS George Washington (SSBN 598) fired a Polaris missile from beneath the ocean's surface. It was the culmination of four years of intensive work, requiring the coordination and simultaneous development of many new systems that had to be integrated flawlessly.
William F. Raborn, Jr.
1905-1990, USNA 1928
Although an aviator by training, Raborn had a major impact on modern submarines. On 8 November 1955, Rear Admiral Raborn was appointed Director of Special Projects at the Bureau of Weapons. His mission: to develop a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The new system had to achieve interim capability by early 1963 and full capability by early 1965.
Under Raborn's direction, the program more than met its deadline. The George Washington was commissioned 30 December 1959 and fired its first test missile 20 July 1960. |