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00:00If you lived before our time, who would you be?
00:14What if you could choose from a thousand yesterdays when the past was today and the new took your
00:21breath away?
00:22Who would you be?
00:23How would you live?
00:24Who would you love?
00:25Living every generation before us, remembering for generations to come, the History Channel,
00:37where the past comes alive.
00:40Hello, I'm Roger Mudd.
00:42Welcome to the History Channel.
00:43Most of us know about snorkeling, using a face mask, flippers, and a plastic breathing
00:48tube to enhance the waterborne pleasures of summer.
00:51For the World War II submariners of the Atlantic, the snorkel was what turned their ships into
00:56true underwater predators.
00:58With the addition of the snorkel, a 20 to 30 foot long air intake and gas outlet pipe
01:04stretching to the surface, a submarine could stay down almost indefinitely.
01:09Join us now as the History Channel presents Silent Service, Submarines of the Atlantic.
01:16They are at once majestic and sinister, dark shadows on the sea.
01:21From U-boat to boomer, diesel to nuclear, the Atlantic Ocean has witnessed their remarkable
01:27transformation from oddity to the most lethal ships in history.
01:33Submarines of the Atlantic, next on Silent Service.
01:53In May of 2001, the western coast of Scotland was witness to an extraordinary event, the
02:12hundredth anniversary of Her Majesty's submarine service.
02:16A dozen submarines cruised majestically into picturesque Garlock, home to the Royal Navy's
02:23Clyde Naval Base.
02:25Their presence was a show of respect, a gesture of camaraderie for all submariners.
02:33I think it's actually quite remarkable to get together submarines from so many nations
02:38and so many places and so many different types of submarine in one location.
02:42To bring old enemies like the Russians and the Poles together with the Americans and
02:46NATO allies like the Portuguese into one place, I think is significant because it does show
02:51how important the submarine has been over the last 100 years.
02:57The Polish submarine Eagle has cruised far from its usual area of operations in the Baltic
03:03to be part of the centennial celebrations.
03:06It has travelled further west than any other Polish submarine.
03:15There is definitely a feeling of solidarity among seamen, Polish as well as other nationalities.
03:21We all face the same difficulties and risks.
03:24Our nationality is less of a defining factor here than our sense of community among submariners.
03:30We all feel the same way about this.
03:32I suppose it really shows that, like all these things, that there's a lot more camaraderie
03:39between submariners than national flags would have you believe.
03:48The Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranean area, covers more than 20% of the Earth's
03:54surface.
03:56Since ancient times, it has played a major role in the fate of empires and nations.
04:04Its great expanse has been host to the evolution of every type of warship in history, but of
04:10all that have put to sea in the last 100 years, none has developed quite like the submarine.
04:18The menacing shapes gathered here in Scotland are lethal to a degree unimagined when their
04:23predecessors first appeared at the end of the 19th century.
04:27If you look back 60 years, submarines used to fight on the surface rather than fighting
04:32underwater.
04:33They used to sort of stealthily approach something underwater and then pop up and use their gun.
04:37That doesn't happen today.
04:39They have enough endurance to be able to operate very successfully underwater.
04:43The first truly capable combat submarines were direct descendants of the Holland, acquired
04:49from the United States for Britain at the turn of the century.
04:53It was presented to a Royal Navy where esteem was still regarded with some suspicion.
05:00When Holland appeared for the first time ever, officers and men did the same thing
05:04in the same bucket.
05:06The social revolution that the submarine brought with it was astonishing.
05:12For the first time ever, officers got oil under their fingernails.
05:18By 1914, the Royal Navy's E-class submarine, diesel-electric powered with a crew of 31,
05:26set the standard for many years to come.
05:29But in the Atlantic, it was the Germans who demonstrated the submarine's potential as
05:34a strategic rather than a tactical weapon.
05:41On May 7th, 1915, the Cunard liner Lusitania was sunk off the southern coast of Ireland
05:47by one torpedo, with the loss of almost 1,200 lives, 128 of them American.
05:59The Germans sank millions of tons of Allied shipping and nearly brought England to her knees.
06:05Only the introduction of the convoy system stemmed the hemorrhage.
06:10If you have a 40-ship convoy, that doesn't make a convoy 40 times more detectable.
06:16It's probably less than one and a half times detectable.
06:20Okay, you get a bigger plume of smoke, but if you haven't got a submarine in the right
06:23place at the right time, what it means is that you get those 40 ships through.
06:29And even if you've got a U-boat in the way, you'll get one shot.
06:35In 1918, the Germans accepted the armistice, ending World War I.
06:41Not because their U-boats had failed, but because the Americans were turning out cargo
06:45ships faster than the Germans could sink them.
06:50But the victors did not take that lesson to heart.
06:53Despite its military insignificance in the First World War, the battleship, not the submarine,
07:00continued to dominate British and American naval strategy.
07:03The passage of a quarter of a century would witness a repeat of the same near-fatal error
07:08the Allies made in 1914.
07:12They would again underestimate the submarine.
07:16On September 3rd, 1939, the first day of World War II, the German submarine U-30 sank the
07:23British passenger liner SS Athenia off the coast of Northern Ireland, killing 118 people.
07:31The U-boats were back.
07:33Approximately 900 submarines sustained Germany's Atlantic Offensive in World War II.
07:40The vast majority of these were the Type 7, 210 feet long, a crew of 44, with a surface
07:47cruising speed of 17 knots.
07:50The Type 7 went through several modifications, but the basic design remained the same.
07:55It was also extremely manoeuvrable.
07:58This made it very good for the kind of convoy battles which the Germans were fighting in
08:03the Atlantic, particularly in the early part of the war.
08:05They could use their manoeuvrability to weave in and out of the shipping lanes, firing at
08:10will, before emerging at the stern of the convoy.
08:17They did, as well, have this tremendously happy time off the East Coast of America,
08:23where millions of tons, I think nearly 5 million tons, were sunk off the East Coast by a handful
08:32of U-boats.
08:35By mid-1943, the Allies had developed effective countermeasures against the U-boats.
08:44The German response was to develop a faster and deeper diving submarine, one that could
08:49operate underwater for extended periods.
08:52It was unlike anything the Allies had ever seen.
08:56The Type 21 U-boat featured a new flatter hull form that achieved higher speeds underwater
09:03than on the surface.
09:04Dr. Helmuth Walter, a German engineer, had developed a radical air-independent propulsion
09:11system for the Type 21, using hydrogen peroxide for both surface and submerged cruising.
09:19In its weakest form, it keeps my hair dyed blonde at about 0.3 percent, but if you multiply
09:26that to 80 percent, it fizzes, and then if you chuck kerosene in, I mean, you've got
09:32this vicious fuel that will burn, produce exhaust and steam, and will produce a 30-knot
09:41submarine.
09:43But this advanced power plant proved too temperamental for operational use.
09:48In its place, conventional diesel engines were used.
09:52An air-breathing tube called a snorkel allowed the Type 21 to cruise almost indefinitely
09:5820 to 30 feet underwater, using diesel power while simultaneously charging its high-capacity
10:05batteries.
10:06Even without the Walter engine, the Type 21 was a potent new weapon.
10:12The Type 21 could approach, say, a convoy snorkeling, which meant that it was undetectable
10:19by radar, for example, that was used during World War II.
10:23It would approach at reasonable speeds, attack, and leave at reasonable speeds, never having
10:29to surface, and traveling at speeds that were probably too great for early generation sonars
10:35to track.
10:38Germany built 131 Type 21s.
10:42Fortunately for the Allies, they arrived too late to have a serious impact on the war.
10:48But this product of advanced German engineering would have a significant influence on post-war
10:53submarine development on both sides of the Atlantic.
11:00At the end of World War II, the United States had at its disposal over 200 excellent fleet
11:06submarines.
11:08These long-range boats had accomplished in the Pacific, against Japanese merchant shipping,
11:13what the Germans had failed to do in the Atlantic against the British.
11:18But looming large over the success of the American fleet boat was the German Type 21.
11:26The victorious Allies, including the Soviet Union, embarked on a race to glean the benefits
11:31of German submarine research.
11:34When I came to work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1951, we had three German U-boats
11:41there at the shipyard.
11:42Two of them were the latest German boats, the Type 21s.
11:46They were very far advanced.
11:48At the time, they were probably the most advanced submarines in the world, much further than
11:51anything we had.
11:53I can remember reviewing German plans, Type 21 plans, and picking an idea off myself that
12:01I incorporated.
12:02They had beautiful plans.
12:07The West was galvanized by the rapid growth of the Russian submarine fleet following the
12:11breakdown of the World War II alliance.
12:15American warfare, ASW, became an important post-war mission for U.S. and British submarines
12:21operating in the Atlantic.
12:24The Type 21 and the anticipation, which was more significant, of Russian submarines based
12:31on that technology posed a substantial challenge to the ASW techniques that were developed
12:38during World War II.
12:41The U.S. initiated a program called GUPPY, short for Greater Underwater Propulsive Power,
12:47to modernize the newest of its World War II hulls using captured Type 21 technology.
12:54Battery capacity was doubled, guns were removed, hulls and conning towers were streamlined.
13:03Concurrent with various GUPPY modernization programs, the U.S. Navy developed its own
13:08version of the German Type 21, the Tang class, the first post-war submarines designed in
13:15the United States.
13:17The Tangs breathed through snorkels and were optimized for underwater speed.
13:22There was a kind of struggle or search by the submarine force for a new or new missions
13:30against an adversary, a very different adversary from the one they had faced in World War II.
13:35The U.S. Navy submarine force in the late 1940s begins a series of experiments with
13:42both new missions for submarines and new technologies.
13:47The 1950s saw GUPPY and Tang class submarines used in a variety of roles, from dedicated
13:54sub-killers to sentinels equipped with long-range radars to warn of approaching threats.
14:01What submariners really wanted was a true submersible, one that could remain hidden
14:06beneath the surface indefinitely, one that did not have to surface to charge its batteries.
14:12Uncle Gail, Uncle Gail, this is Left Shoe, Left Shoe.
14:17My battery exhausted.
14:18Take me to your leader.
14:21Over.
14:22Nobody recognized that the submarine had enormous potential, but it was still a weapon of position.
14:31You had to rely to a great extent on your target coming to you.
14:35Even the fleet submarines, to a certain extent, lacked legs and endurance and high speed.
14:45The U.S. and Britain pursued two approaches to underwater propulsion systems that were
14:49not dependent on outside oxygen, closed cycle or air-independent propulsion, and nuclear
14:57power.
15:00The British revisited Helmuth-Volter's wartime efforts with closed cycle engines, with only
15:05marginal results.
15:08One of the basic problems at that time was that hydrogen peroxide and fuel oxidizer combinations
15:12like that are explosive, they're rocket fuel, so this is a dangerous thing to have aboard
15:19a submarine.
15:21We looked at HTP, high test peroxide, and we built two experimental submarines to follow
15:26up using that stuff, called Excalibur and Explorer, colloquially known as the Exploder
15:33class.
15:38Nuclear power was more promising.
15:41In the United States, the wartime Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb had
15:46demonstrated that a controlled nuclear reaction could generate the heat required to power
15:52a conventional steam turbine.
15:55But the engineering problems were substantial, not to mention the political hurdles.
16:02And to take that technology and obviously radically compress it into an engineering
16:08space that could fit within a ship or even more challenging within a submarine, the person
16:14that's most associated with this effort is Hyman Rickover.
16:19Since 1947, Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant, irascible engineering officer, had been pushing
16:26the newly established Atomic Energy Commission to develop a nuclear reactor that could power
16:32a submarine.
16:34But there was little enthusiasm within the civilian sector of government for a small,
16:39expensive shipboard reactor.
16:46News that Russia had detonated a nuclear weapon in August 1949 wiped out the bureaucratic
16:52resistance to Rickover's ideas.
16:57Westinghouse Corporation began construction of a prototype small nuclear reactor near
17:02Arco, Idaho.
17:04At Rickover's insistence, the reactor was built into a life-size submarine home, underwater.
17:11It was called STR, Submarine Thermal Reactor Mark I.
17:18In August 1951, the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut, received the contract
17:24to build the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.
17:29Her keel was laid at the E.B. Yard in Groton on June 14, 1952, President Harry S. Truman
17:36officiating.
17:39STR Mark II, an almost exact duplicate of the Idaho reactor, was built within the Nautilus.
17:48While they were building the boat in E.B., they had building a reactor out in Idaho,
17:54and it was floated in a tank.
17:57As they experimented and found things would work, it would be telegraphed or radioed back
18:03to E.B., and it was being built subsequently.
18:07So we were just one or two steps ahead of the reactor in E.B., and that's how they
18:12trained the people.
18:14To save time and money, the hull form of the diesel-electric tank class would be used on
18:19the new submarine.
18:25With the wife of President Eisenhower smashing the traditional champagne bottle against her
18:30bow, the Nautilus was launched on January 21, 1954.
18:36It took another year to install and test her inner workings, including STR Mark II.
18:45Just after 11 a.m. on January 17, 1955, Nautilus got underway.
18:51For the first time in history, she broadcast the signal, underway on nuclear power.
18:59In the years ahead, submarines using the power of the harnessed atom would traverse the Atlantic
19:05submerged at speeds and depths never before imagined.
19:13The Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered vessel, was conventional in everything but
19:18her remarkable power plant.
19:22In May 1955, she made her shakedown cruise from New London, Connecticut to San Juan,
19:28Mexico, 1,381 miles in 90 hours, entirely submerged.
19:36Nautilus shattered one record after another for submerged high-speed endurance.
19:42The increased tempo of operations aboard a nuclear submarine required adjustments to
19:47normal crew responsibilities.
19:51On a Nautilus, there was four chief petty officers who were qualified reactor operators.
19:57We also were qualified watch supervisors.
20:00We could spell the four officers who were qualified to operate the reactor.
20:05So that gave us eight people to stand watches, four on four or six, whatever you wished.
20:16In April 1957, Nautilus had her uranium fuel core replaced.
20:21After more than two years of operation with the fleet, she had steamed more than 62,000
20:26miles, half of that distance submerged.
20:30A conventional submarine with the same horsepower would have burned over two million gallons
20:35of diesel oil, enough to fill 217 railroad tank cars.
20:43But Nautilus soon achieved an even more impressive milestone.
20:47In the summer of 1957, she began probing the ice pack of the polar Arctic.
20:53This was followed the next year by concerted attempts to cross the North Pole, submerged.
21:00Following two aborted attempts, Nautilus pulled out of Pearl Harbor on July 23, 1958.
21:08We started heading for Panama, and then after we submerged, we turned around and started
21:12heading up.
21:13And this time it worked.
21:14We got all the way around up to Point Barrow, found a deep trench, submerged, and away we went.
21:23Project Sunshine, the mission to penetrate the Arctic ice cap, was underway.
21:30On August 3, 1958, Nautilus crossed the North Pole, the first ship in history to do so.
21:38The Nautilus then steamed south, entering open ocean between Greenland and Iceland,
21:44then continuing on to Portsmouth, England, and finally New York City, for a triumphant
21:49welcome home.
21:53Nautilus had pioneered not only nuclear propulsion, but had blazed the trail for polar transits
21:57by submarines, opening a new area for naval operations.
22:03But for all her endurance and speed, 23 knots submerged, Nautilus could never approach the
22:08full potential of nuclear propulsion.
22:12Unlike all prior submarines which visited underwater, a nuclear submarine was going
22:16to live underwater.
22:17This posed tremendous challenges, especially for a very high-powered submarine, in terms
22:22of how to control a submarine that was really maneuvering in three dimensions underwater
22:26the way an airplane maneuvers in three dimensions above the surface of the earth.
22:32Even before Nautilus began her early trials with nuclear propulsion, the U.S. Navy had
22:37designed another submarine, the Albacore, as part of its broad-based research into submarine
22:43technology.
22:45Albacore was a pure research vessel that, while conventionally powered, utilized the
22:51shape of an airship or dirigible, a so-called body of revolution.
22:57Her short, fatter hull, wind tunnel-tested, was made for underwater speed and maneuverability,
23:04achieving a previously unheard of 33 knots submerged.
23:09The Albacore pioneered many things for the U.S. Navy Submarine Force, one of the most
23:14important of which was one-man control.
23:18One man sitting where I am would, in effect, fly the Albacore just like a pilot would fly
23:23an aircraft.
23:24The control column turning left would turn the ship left, turning right would turn the
23:28boat right, push her forward, the diving planes would send her deeper.
23:34You pull the column back and the planes would send her back toward the surface.
23:47In front of you, you had the various instruments and things that would tell you what your course
23:51was, how deep you were, how fast you were going, and everything you needed to control
23:57the ship.
23:59Albacore could make tight, banked turns, even snap rolls, an unnerving and potentially fatal
24:05phenomenon for which she underwent extensive modifications.
24:11On the after end of the sail, there was a dorsal rudder which was controlled by these
24:16two buttons.
24:17When you did a real hard turn, it would induce a snap roll into the ship, like it would heel
24:23over toward the center of the turn.
24:25The dorsal rudder would counteract the snap roll and keep it on an even keel vertically.
24:35For 20 years, Albacore performed underwater high-speed research, providing the hydrodynamic
24:40foundation for all modern submarines of the Atlantic.
24:46She has been preserved as a museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
24:52The wealth of technical information obtained from the Nautilus and Albacore programs revolutionized
24:58U.S. submarine design.
25:04The first to combine Albacore's hydrodynamic shape with the nuclear propulsion of Nautilus
25:10was the Skipjack, commissioned in April 1959.
25:17Skipjack-class boats were fast but noisy.
25:21Skipjack is a teardrop hull, nuclear light-water reactor, first operational 30-knot submarine.
25:31Very loud. Not a great listening platform.
25:35For a submarine, stealth, in addition to speed, is essential to maneuvering for the kid.
25:52Two years after the Skipjack, the essential qualities of high performance and silence
26:01were successfully fused in the Thresher, commissioned in August 1961.
26:09If you look at Thresher, she's a lot bigger than Skipjack. And one of the reasons is because
26:13that's what you have to do to quiet a fast nuclear submarine. It takes volume. And so
26:18Thresher was slower than Skipjack.
26:21But on the other hand, Thresher was still a 30-knot submarine, and Thresher was very
26:24quiet.
26:27The $45 million dollar Thresher was bred for speed and maneuverability. Among her many
26:33innovations was the use of so-called high-yield steel, capable of sustaining 80,000 pounds
26:40per square inch, allowing Thresher to dive twice as deep as older submarines.
26:48Her propulsion plant was mounted on rubber pads, so the noise from pumps and turbines
26:53never radiated to the hull, where it would escape into the sea.
26:58In the words of one submariner, comparing the noise made by the Threshers against the
27:03Skipjacks is like comparing a Cadillac to a Model A Ford.
27:08I had been to sea on sea trials on board her several times. She was a pride and joy of
27:16the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. She was a wonderful ship. Everybody involved with her, including
27:21the crew, thought she was the greatest thing the Navy had, and she was at that time.
27:27But Thresher's celebrity would soon strike an ominous note.
27:32On the morning of April 10th, 1963, while conducting a post-overhaul test dive off Nantucket,
27:39the Thresher approached her assigned depth of more than 1,000 feet. Suddenly, a pipe
27:46joint failed, producing catastrophic flooding. Thresher plunged out of control into the inky
27:53blackness of the Atlantic. Her crush depth was exceeded. The submarine imploded.
28:00Debris, along with the bodies of 129 men, rained down on the ocean floor.
28:08One month after the Thresher disappeared, the deep-diving bathyscap Trieste photographed
28:14the wreckage of the ill-fated submarine, lying 8,400 feet beneath the surface.
28:21With the loss of the Thresher, the Navy went back to the drawing board and very carefully
28:24analyzed everything involved with operating submarines at deep depths, and came up with
28:30numerous safety improvements, which were known as the sub-safe program.
28:36One of the most dramatic results of the sub-safe program was the development of the emergency
28:41blow surfacing procedure.
28:49The concept was first tested on the Albacore.
28:52It's like a panic switch that you can throw, and it'll blow all your ballast tanks. It'll
28:58dump all of your high-pressure air into your ballast tanks and give you the maximum buoyancy
29:03you can get to drive you back to the surface.
29:07Emergency surface to ship.
29:09This demonstration of sheer propulsive energy is practiced today by every U.S. submarine.
29:15It is symbolic of unrelenting progress, of lessons learned, and a salute to 129 men who
29:24never returned in 1963.
29:29Since its inception, the development of the submersible fighting ship has been a contest
29:34of form and function, of hydrodynamic purity versus operational requirements.
29:41Of the many contemplated uses for submarines, none has been more challenging than as a platform
29:47for guided missiles.
29:49During World War II, a German proposal to launch V-2 rockets from canisters towed behind
29:55U-boats at sea was never implemented, but the U.S. and the Soviet Union pursued the
30:01concept of seaborne ballistic missiles.
30:05In 1947, a captured V-2 was tested aboard the aircraft carrier Midway as part of a feasibility
30:13study.
30:16The liquid-fueled V-2 lurched wildly into the sky.
30:21The erratic missile nearly took off the carrier's superstructure.
30:25Hydrogen peroxide fuel oxidizer combinations are dangerous in a submarine because they're
30:30like rocket fuel.
30:31Well, now we're really talking about rocket fuel.
30:34If you're going to launch a missile from the submarine, it's the same problem.
30:39The Navy concentrated instead on shorter range and considerably less dangerous jet-powered
30:45V-1 buzz bombs.
30:48In February 1947, the USS Cusk launched the first guided missile from a submarine.
30:59In the mid-1950s, the more advanced Regulus cruise missile was specifically designed for
31:05submarine use.
31:08Carried in a watertight hangar aft of the conning tower, the Regulus was essentially
31:14an unmanned jet aircraft that could fly 500 miles at 600 miles per hour.
31:24Regulus was a fairly large cruise missile, carried a fairly large nuclear weapon.
31:29The submarine, in order to launch the missiles, of course, had to surface, but then also had
31:33to turn on a radar that was going to track the missile and provide guidance commands
31:36to it.
31:37American nuclear superiority was again challenged when, in 1953, the Soviets detonated a thermonuclear
31:46or hydrogen bomb just two years after the United States.
31:52The implications were far-reaching.
31:56At the urging of the Eisenhower administration, the Navy and Army began joint development
32:02of a new ballistic missile.
32:04To carry a heavy thermonuclear warhead, the missile would be of intermediate range,
32:09approximately 1,500 miles.
32:14And despite the Navy's aversion to potentially explosive propellants, the missile was to
32:19be liquid-fueled.
32:22The project gained momentum with the advancement of Admiral R. Lee Burke to Chief of Naval
32:27Operations in mid-1955.
32:30Burke strongly supported the sea-based missile concept.
32:34You have to remember at that time that, in general, nuclear weapons had become kind of
32:40the centerpiece of the U.S. military.
32:42The U.S. Air Force, which at that time was essentially nothing but a nuclear delivery
32:47service, had 50% of the defense budget.
32:53Burke appointed Rear Admiral William F. Rayburn to head the Special Projects Office.
33:00The schedule to get the missile to sea was 10 years.
33:03Target date, 1965.
33:07The big challenge initially, of course, was that missiles were still liquid-fueled.
33:11And it's a measure of Burke's determination to go forward with this project that the Navy
33:16decided to begin its own ballistic missile program.
33:22Admiral Burke's decision to break away from the Army program was influenced by several
33:28technical breakthroughs, including advances in solid-fuel rocket engines and the scaling
33:33down of thermonuclear warheads.
33:36Polaris, the Navy's solid-fuel fleet ballistic missile program, was formally approved on
33:41New Year's Day, 1957.
33:48Ten months later, in October, the Soviets again stunned the West by launching their
33:53Sputnik satellite into Earth orbit.
33:56In response, U.S. missile programs, including Polaris, were accelerated.
34:02The problem was that a submarine for the new missile had not yet been designed.
34:07In desperation, the Navy looked to modifying boats already under construction.
34:13They discovered that you could fit a 1,500-mile solid-fuel missile of the type they were trying
34:21to design inside the hull of the existing skipjack attack submarines that we were building.
34:28And so George Washington, which was the first SSBN, is basically a skipjack with a big plug
34:33in the hull where 16 Polaris missiles were put.
34:42On June 9, 1959, what was originally intended to be the attack submarine Scorpion was launched
34:49instead as the George Washington, the first U.S. ballistic missile submarine.
34:57One year later, on July 20, 1960, she fired her first Polaris missile from underwater.
35:07Four months after that achievement, the George Washington put to sea on the first ever
35:12American strategic deterrent patrol, five years earlier than originally planned.
35:19The ship's submersible ballistic missile nuclear, SSBN, had become a reality.
35:28Several generations of SSBNs have patrolled Atlantic waters since 1960.
35:34Today, it is ten submarines of the Ohio class.
35:38At 560 feet long and 42 feet wide, they are the largest submarines ever built in the United States.
35:46Each Ohio class submarine carries 24 Trident D5 missiles,
35:51each missile in turn carrying eight independently targeted nuclear warheads
35:56with a range of 6,000 miles.
36:03With the ability to stay submerged for months at a time,
36:06Ohio's are virtually invulnerable while on patrol.
36:10They constitute the most effective nuclear deterrent ever designed.
36:15The most effective nuclear deterrent ever developed.
36:18Their crews have summed up their SSBN mission with only the slightest hint of sarcasm.
36:24Hide with pride.
36:31Berlin, November 1989.
36:34The fall of what had been a long-standing symbol of East-West rivalry
36:38thrust the U.S. defense establishment, including the submarine community,
36:43into a transition.
36:44The number of Ohio class SSBNs on deterrent patrol will be reduced.
36:50Roles and missions are still being redefined for a post-Cold War world.
36:58Today, more fast attack submarines, SSNs, prowl the Atlantic than any other type.
37:05The United States operates approximately 27 Los Angeles class SSNs
37:11from its eastern seaboard.
37:15Los Angeles class attack submarines are quiet and fast,
37:19with speeds exceeding 30 knots.
37:21They are packed with electronics for ASW and surveillance.
37:25And by the standards of earlier nuclear submarines, they are crowded.
37:30We're a very compact, dense platform as far as sensors and weapons are.
37:35And unfortunately, when it comes to have ability for the crew,
37:38we have to take a second there.
37:40I sleep down in the torpedo room.
37:41We hot bunk, which means we'll have basically three guys sharing two bunks,
37:46which means they're sleeping in shifts.
37:52In addition to its usual load of torpedoes,
37:55the Los Angeles class has been modified to launch Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, or TLAMs.
38:03Standby, tube 9.
38:04Standby, tube 9.
38:08Shoot, tube 9.
38:10Fire, tube 9.
38:12Launch ordered.
38:17Booster ignition.
38:18The cruise missile has revolutionized the role of the fast attack submarine,
38:23providing it with an offensive strike capability previously reserved for the aircraft carrier.
38:30We've got to carry the battle to the front lines.
38:32And we spend a lot more time on the surveillance missions and on the strike missions.
38:39That is the Tomahawk strike stuff.
38:42The successor to the Los Angeles class, the Seawolf,
38:46is considered the first new top-to-bottom U.S. attack submarine
38:50since the Skipjack class of the late 1950s.
38:55With a published submerged speed of 35 knots,
38:58Seawolf is faster than the Los Angeles class and has improved electronic systems.
39:04She was given the hull number 21, as in 21st century.
39:09But almost from its inception, Seawolf has been embroiled in controversy.
39:14It is the most expensive submarine ever built,
39:18appearing at a time when her primary mission, hunting advanced Russian submarines,
39:23has all but disappeared since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
39:28In response to Seawolf's escalating costs,
39:32the Navy initiated development of a multi-mission attack submarine
39:36substantially less expensive than the Seawolf,
39:39but still capable of maintaining undersea superiority.
39:44The Virginia class, the first of which is scheduled for commissioning in 2004,
39:50is advertised as having all the best qualities of the Los Angeles class
39:54with additional advanced electronic systems.
39:57Virginia's sensory capabilities include so-called wide aperture sonar
40:03to seek out a specific kind of threat.
40:07As fast attack submarines increasingly operate closer to shore,
40:11whether to launch cruise missiles or to support special operations,
40:15they enter what the Navy calls brown water.
40:21This is the realm of the small, super-quiet diesel-electric submarine
40:27exemplified by the Russian Kilo class, first introduced in 1982.
40:33This advanced version of the Kilo, the Vologda,
40:36came all the way from the Kola Peninsula,
40:39home to Russia's North Sea Fleet, to take part in the British submarine Centennial.
40:49Submarines of Project 877, we call her Varshavyanka,
40:54do not operate in open ocean.
40:57They're intended for close-range actions,
40:59for us the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea.
41:05The Kilo is a general-purpose submarine with good habitability.
41:09Unlike the American Los Angeles class,
41:11hot bunking is not required by the 60-man crew.
41:21Here the living conditions are incomparable to older boats.
41:24Each officer, midshipman and seaman has a cot or a cabin of his own.
41:29There he can relax after his watch, read a book or daydream.
41:36With an estimated submerged speed of 25 knots,
41:40Kilos are virtually silent on electric power.
41:43ASW against diesel boats has been compared to hunting foxes.
41:48They can be seen and shot running across a field,
41:53but are a lot harder to catch, dodging in and out of hedgerows.
42:01The remarkable feature of this boat is a very low noise level.
42:04It's the lowest among our subs.
42:06The guys call this submarine a black hole.
42:12The Kilo class and other modern diesel-electric submarines
42:15provide an effective platform for a variety of sensors and lethal weapons,
42:20at a fraction of the cost of a nuclear-powered SSN.
42:26These new Kilo class are for all intents and purposes
42:30like nuclear-powered attack submarines
42:33because they have the same systems on board.
42:35Their sonars and their weapons systems are comparable.
42:38They just don't have the endurance, the 90 days submerged, for example.
42:45But the endurance differential is becoming less of a factor.
42:49The air-independent propulsion concept,
42:52first introduced in World War II Germany by Helmuth Walther,
42:56has finally achieved operational status.
43:02The Swedish Gotland class, introduced in 1995,
43:06uses a closed cycle system of diesel oil and liquid oxygen
43:10to produce heat, driving a generator,
43:13which in turn powers electric motors.
43:16They can remain submerged for many weeks.
43:21During the 100 years that they have put to sea,
43:24no warship has so influenced the course of history as the submarine.
43:29Its offensive capabilities, endurance, and broad range of sensors
43:33have changed naval strategy forever.
43:37The submarine has emerged as the capital ship of the modern era,
43:41one whose shadow will glide menacingly through the Atlantic
43:45long into the future.
43:49The emergency blow system ironically led to another submarine tragedy
43:54in 2001 off the coast of Hawaii,
43:56when the USS Greenville, on a demonstration cruise
43:59with some civilian VIPs aboard, fell behind in its schedule.
44:04The skipper ordered an emergency blow,
44:06but he failed to spot a Japanese fishing vessel above him.
44:09The collision killed nine Japanese men and boys.
44:13The Greenville's commander, reprimanded for negligence,
44:16resigned from the Navy, but with a full pension.
44:19For the History Channel, I'm Roger Mudd. Thanks for watching.
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