Project 705 Lira better known by its
nato designation Alpha, was among the
most innovative soviet submarines of the
1960s. Powered by a technically impressive lead
cooled fast reactor design, the Alpha Class registered performance numbers
that remain unbeaten to this day.
Lirara is the fastest serial submarine
ever built, second only to the prototype Papa Class Submarine. It could also operate at a depth of 2200
feet, far outmatching even its
contemporary NATO counterparts.
These innovations were enabled in no
small part, through the Alpha's
revolutionary use of a titanium Alloys Hull.
An extremely light and durable metal
titanium brings several advantages over
a standard steel hull construction. A titanium construction facilitates
higher pressure tolerances, allowing a
submarine to operate at significantly
greater depths.
As seen with the Alpha and Papa Class, the comparative lightness of titanium
bears the potential for record-breaking
speeds. The metal is likewise resistant to
corrosion and paramagnetic, meaning that
it can be harder to detect by naval
vessels using magnetic anomaly detectors.
The Alpha's impressive performance
prompted alarm from the us military, which expressed concern that the Alpha
travels too fast, and too deep to be reliably countered by
the us navy's existing Arsenal of
anti-submarine torpedoes.
But Washington, Wisely did not try to
reproduce soviet advancements in
submarine design. Instead the navy
invested in new, high-speed
anti-submarine warfare weapons such as
the mark 48 torpedo that were thought to
be capable of catching Alpha boats.
In hindsight there are numerous reasons
why the US Navy did not follow the
soviet shipbuilding industry down the
path of titanium hulls. To begin with titanium is an
extraordinarily rare and expensive metal
that's much more complex to process than
iron.
Titanium panels are more difficult to
bend into shape, especially on the scale
of military submarines. To be successfully manipulated, titanium
had to be handled and specially
constructed, argon infused warehouses by
trained welders equipped with an outside
supply of oxygen.
A costly and time-consuming process of
trial and error reaffirmed that titanium
is subject to embrittlement by hydrogen
at higher temperatures, potentially
causing design imperfections that may
compromise the submarine's structural
integrity.
There was simply no conceivable supply
chain in place to make the serial
production of titanium even remotely
cost efficient. the papa class prototype cost an
astonishing 1 percent of the soviet
union's entire 1968 GDP and that doesn't factor in titanium's
unique maintenance and component
degradation costs. For the US Military it was exponentially
cheaper in mark.
There are three major types of submarines in the United States Navy ballistic bullet submarines, attack submarines, and voyage bullet submarines. All submarines in theU.S. Navy are nuclear-powered. Ballistic bullet submarines have a single strategic charge of carrying nuclear submarine- launched ballistic dumdums.
Attack submarines have several politic operations, including sinking vessels and subs, launching voyage dumdums, and gathering intelligence. The submarine has a long history in the United States, beginning with the Turtle, the world's first submersible with a proved record of use in combat.
The first submarine used in combat was the USS Turtle, the Turtle was erected in 1775 and was made to attach explosive charges to the shells of the vessels. Several attempts were made against British Vessels in American harbors in 1776, but none were successful.
Other submersible systems date to the 19th century. Alligator was a US Navy submarine that was noway commissioned. She was being hauled to South Carolina to be used in taking Charleston, but was lost in bad rainfall on 2 April 1863 off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. On February 17, 1864, theH.L. Hunley (submarine) came the first submarine to sink a warship.
Real progress began late in the century with the structure of the USS Holland (SS-1), named after John Philip Holland.
The boat was developed at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard located in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This pioneering craft was in service for 10 times and was a experimental and trials vessel for numerous systems on other early submarines.
