Nuclear Submarine Technology & Missions MORE SILENT, MORE DEEP Nuclear Submarine Tech

A nuclear submarine is, in the most basic terms, an undersea vessel that uses nuclear energy to power its engines. The significance of this  and the reason the nuclear submarine revolutionized undersea warfare  is that unlike nearly all other power sources, a nuclear reactor is not dependent on oxygen from the air. A submarine's crew needs oxygen to breathe, but the amount is far less than an oxygenusing engine requires. Sufficient breathing oxygen can be carried for a long undersea voyage. Nuclear submarines therefore can remain submerged for weeks or even months at a time, nearly undetectable from above.

A nuclear submarine is the ultimate stealth weapon, to a far greater degree than any other weapon system, even a nonnuclear submarine. The importance of a nuclear submarine's freedom to operate without an engine air supply is so important as to deserve further explanation. Other highpowered engines  steam, gasoline, and gas turbine (jet)  all require very large amounts of oxygen in order to operate. The oxygen is used to burn fuel, providing heat that drives the engine.

Thus, none of these engines can operate underwater unless oxygen is provided from tanks, or drawn from a pipe or tube reaching to the surface. This places a severe limit on their use in submarines. It is true that seawater contains dissolved oxygen  fish obtain this from their gills, which allows them to bre

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time and at low speed (Van der Porten, 1969, p. 15). Heat from the nuclear reactor produces steam in a boiler, which drives steam turbines. A nuclear submarine is thus actually a steamship, but with a nuclearpowered boiler. There are three basic missions performed by nuclear submarines: commerce raiding, hunterkiller, and strategic deterrent patrol. The first two missions use similar types of submarine, but in different roles. The third requires a specialized submarine, normally used for no other purpose. In the two World Wars, submarines served primarily as commerce raiders: German Uboats in the Atlantic against Allied convoys, and in World War II, American submarines attacking Japanese shipping. Submarines did at times sink battleships, aircraft carriers, and other warships, but their most effective role was in sinking ordinary cargo ships carrying vital war supplies. In this role, even the dieselelectric "conventional" submarines were extremely effective. Only heroic efforts in both wars saved Britain from economic strangulation by Uboats. During the Cold War, the US was concerned that in the event of a war in Europe, the Soviet Union would use its large conventional submarine fleet in the same way. Cargo sh
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