Development Of The Submarine
Throughout history, navies have made significant impacts in the technological
development of human kind. These impacts range from improvements in metal
technologies made while perfecting the cannon to the advent of cybernetics,
which allowed more precise targeting of weaponry. One of the more sophisticated
developments in naval history has been the invention of the submarine. The
submarine was born in 1620 as a leather-covered rowboat built by Cornelius
Drebbel. After Robert Fulton came up with a more modern prototype in 1800, the
military advantages of a nearly invisible warship were quickly divined. However,
they remained unrealized for quite a while. Although Fulton probably ...
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of the superpowers after the war resulted in a
unique situation. The two major naval powers of the day, Great Britain and the
United States, were now allied against the greatest land power in history in the
Soviet Union. In the period from 1955 to 1965, the advantage was heavily in
favor of the U.S. As the United States had developed the atomic and hydrogen
bombs first, they obviously gained a head start which developed into a decisive
nuclear advantage. This advantage acted as an effective deterrent to any Soviet
movement into Western Europe. However, as the Soviet nuclear arsenal expanded
(mostly during the Kennedy administration), it became necessary to effect a
balance in the area of conventional warfare or to make more inroads in nuclear
weapons development. Before this could be accomplished, however, advancements in
submarine technology had to made as well.
The submarines of World War II, although effective in their roles, were
rather primitive. A noisy, slow, ...
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its number of missiles, however, the nuclear
submarine desperately needed to be built to tip the balance of power back
towards the West. In 1955, the most advanced submarine in terms of these nuclear
developments was the USS Nautilus. With excellent maneuvering facilitated by her
Albacore hull design, the Nautilus had virtually unlimited range thanks to her
nuclear power plant. In fact, the Nautilus became the first submarine to
navigate under the polar ice cap in 1958. It could be said that the range of a
nuclear submarine was now only constrained by the physical limits of her crew.
In 1960, the USS Triton, a larger version of the Nautilus, circumnavigated the
earth, becoming the ...
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"Development Of The Submarine." Essayworld.com. September 25, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Development-Of-The-Submarine/71745.
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