Sturgeon class submarine

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USS Sturgeon
Class overview
Operators: United States of America
Preceded by: Thresher class submarine
Succeeded by: Los Angeles class submarine
In commission: 3/3/1967 - late 2003
Completed: 37
Lost: 0
Retired: 37
Preserved: 0
General characteristics
Displacement:

Surfaced: 3640tons

Submerged:4640tons
Length: 292.25ft
Beam: 31.7ft
Propulsion: 1 S5W PWR, 2 11.2MW steam turbines, 1 shaft
Speed:

Surfaced: 20+knots

Submerged:30+knots
Range: Unlimited, except by food supplies
Test depth: 1320ft[1]
Complement: 107
Armament:

sub harpoon anti ship missile tomahawk land attack missile/ tomahawk anti ship missile 4x21in amidship tubes, 15reloads plus 4 sub harpoon or up to 8 tomahawks instead of equiavlent of number of torpedoes or sub harpoons.

Minelayering configuration, Mk67 mobile or Mk60 CAPTOR mines instead of torpedoes.


The Sturgeon-class (colloquially in Navy circles, the 637 class) attack submarine (SSN) were the "work horses" of the submarine attack fleet throughout much of the Cold War. They were phased out in the 1990s and early 21st century in favor of the Los Angeles and Virginia classes.

All Sturgeons were designed to surface through ice, with a reinforced sail and diving planes capable of rotating all the way to vertical. Those in Squadron 4 all had modified designs. Sunfish had a polymer bow, which allowed better sonar reception. Batfish had rubber insulation mounted on its hull for quieter operation. Narwhal, which was nearly a sub-class of its own, was completed with an S5G reactor which was cooled using natural convection rather than pumps. The Glenard P. Lipscomb was a trials submarine which was completed using a large electric motor for main propulsion rather than direct drive from the steam turbines. The Lipscomb’s trial of electric propulsion was not considered successful due to lack of reliability and she was decommissioned in 1989.

Beginning with Archerfish (SSN-678), units of this class had a 10-foot (3.0m) longer hull, giving them more living and working space than previous submarines. Parche (SSN-683) received an additional 100-foot (30m) hull extension containing cable tapping equipment that brought her total length to 401 feet (122m). A number of the long hull Sturgeon-class SSNs, including Parche, Rivers, and Russell were involved in top-secret reconnaissance missions, including cable tap operations in the Barents and Okhotsk seas.

A total of six boats were modified to carry the SEAL Dry Deck Shelter, indicated below by "(DDS)". The DDS is a submersible launch hangar with a hyperbaric chamber attached to the ship's weapon shipping hatch. DDS-equipped boats were tasked with the covert insertion of special forces troops.

Contents

[edit] Ships

[edit] Short Hull

[edit] Long Hull

[edit] Derivatives

Two other Navy vessels were based on the Sturgeon hull, but were modified for experimental reasons:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tyler, Patrick (1986). Running Critical. New York: Harper and Row, 58. 
  • Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, By Robert Hutchinson.

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

[edit] External links

United States Navy Portal
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Sturgeon-class submarine
Short hull
Long hull
List of submarines of the United States Navy | List of submarine classes of the United States Navy