New Power in the Depths

Since World War II, the once insignificant Soviet navy has developed an ambitious new objective--wresting from the U.S. control of the seas. To this end the U.S.S.R. is building 50 to 60 submarines a year, and now has an in-service fleet of more than 400 subs, almost four times as many as the U.S.

Last week the U.S. Navy threw a new and disturbing factor into Russian calculations with the announcement that some time this year California's Mare Island Navy Yard will begin construction of the world's first atom-powered, guided missile submarine. Roughly the same size as the original atom-powered Nautilus (320 ft. long, 3,180 tons displacement), and possessed of the same cruising range,* the still unnamed SSGN 587 will be capable of firing a variety of guided missiles, including the 1,500-mile "intermediate" range missile, which the U.S. hopes to have well before SSGN 587 goes into service in 1959.

For the Soviet navy (which apparently still has no atom subs) SSGN 587 was only the latest of a series of unpleasant undersea developments. Fortnight ago the Mare Island yards began work on Sargo, the U.S. Navy's fifth nuclear-powered submarine, and the first to be built on the West Coast. Shorter (257 ft.) and lighter (2,300 tons displacement) than Nautilus, Sargo will combine Nautilus' endurance with greater speed and maneuverability, and when she is commissioned in 1958, she should be the world's most effective submarine. Sargo's pre-eminence promises to be short-lived, however. By the end of 1956 the U.S. Navy will have in commission or under construction a total of nine nuclear subs. In the seventh of these, SSN 585, nuclear power will be combined for the first time with the revolutionary teardrop hull of the experimental U.S.S. Albacore--a combination that will give SSN 585 a whole new magnitude of underwater speed and agility.

* Already Nautilus has traveled more than 26,000 miles without refueling or engine repairs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.