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64 so u R c e s o f we a p o n sy s T e m s In n o v a T Io n In T h e depaR TmenT o f defense
capabilities of various reactor designs. Refueling projections were also forthcoming,
and they were incorporated into the reactor designs for the Skate and Skipjack
classes of nuclear submarines and the atomic-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise,
as well as the replacement cores for the original reactors installed on the Nautilus
and Seawolf. 83
Postwar developments in reactor design at the model basin were matched
by major advances in submarine hydrodynamics and architecture. Until nuclear
propulsion was perfected to the point where it could safely extend the underwater
range and speed of submersible vessels, the Navy had to rely on incremental
improvements to its vintage wartime submarine fleet. Immediately after the
war,the navy set up the GUPPY (Greater Underwater Propulsive Power)
program to retrofit World War II–era submarines to achieve higher speeds and
to run quieter under water. Removal of deck guns, changes in the shapes of sterns
and bows, and development of new conning tower configurations were some of
the many adjustments made to the different classes and types of submarines
assigned to the GUPPY program. Although these changes led to improvements
in speed and performance, drag effects and propeller and engine noise still
imposed serious limits on further development of a quiet and fast conventional
submarine fleet. Beginning in 1950, however, researchers at the model basin began
experimenting with new hull forms. Three years later, they unveiled the design
for the research vessel Albacore. Incorporating a revolutionary new “tear-drop”
shape, Albacore exhibited more hydrodynamic stability and ran much quieter
and faster than the retrofitted submarines in the GUPPY fleet. Albacore’s shape
also marked a major improvement over the hull designs adopted for the Nautilus,
Seawolf, and Skate classes of nuclear-powered submarines. Commissioned in
1959, the SSN–585 Skipjack was the first completely redesigned submarine that
incorporated both the optimal design of the Albacore and the latest advances
in shipboard nuclear reactor technology. This basic platform, which emerged
from the close institutional partnership between private industry and the Navy’s
in-house R&D laboratories, guided the development of the attack and ballistic
missile submarine fleet for decades. 84
From Bureaus and Laboratories to System Commands
and Research Centers
In 1959, the same year that the Navy commissioned the Skipjack, the
bureaus of Ordnance and Ships merged to form the Bureau of Naval Weapons.
83 Carlisle, Where the Fleet Begins, 223–24.
84 Ibid., 243–49, 254–56. See also Gary E. Weir, Forged in War: The Naval-Industrial Complex
and American Submarine Construction, 1940–1961 (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1993),
chaps. 5–6. Attempts were made to develop new propulsion technologies, but none displaced the nuclear
reactor as the primary source of power for submarines. In the 1980s, for example, a new R&D program on
superconducting motors for surface ships the Navy established at the David Taylor Naval Ship Research
and Development Center (created in 1967 when the model basin in Carderock merged with the Marine
Engineering Laboratory in Annapolis). Several successful prototypes were built, but they were not produced
in quantity or incorporated into the fleet. See Carlisle, Where the Fleet Begins, 379–84.