Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship

into a mobile bottom influence mine.

Narwhal (SSN-671) Basic Sturgeon-class hull with a natural circulation reactor. One-of-a-kind experimental submarine. Fully combat capable.

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Nautilus (SSN-571) First nuclear-powered submarine in the world. Commissioned September 30, 1954.

Navsea Naval Sea Systems Command.

NIFTI Navy InFrared Thermal Imager.

November SSN First-generation Soviet SSN. Fast, noisy, and extremely unsafe because of radiation. These SSNs have all been retired because of their poor safety record. A total of fourteen were built. One was lost off Cape Finisterre in April 1970.

OBA Oxygen Breathing Apparatus. A portable system that chemically generates oxygen for about 30 minutes. Used by damage control teams to fight fires.

Ohio (SSBN-726) Fourth generation of U.S. Navy SSBNs. Largest submarines in the fleet; each carries twenty-four Trident I C-4 or Trident II D-5 missiles. Extremely quiet submarines. Essentially 688s with twenty-four missile tubes. A total of twenty were to be built, but because of START and the collapse of the USSR only eighteen units will be completed.

OOD Officer Of the Deck. U.S. Navy officer in charge of directing the submarine's movement and ensuring that essential actions are conducted. Primary responsibility is to keep the submarine out of dangerous situations and to keep the captain informed.

OPNAV Office of the Chief of NAVal OPerations.

ORSE Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination.

Oscar I & II SSGN Third-generation Soviet SSGN, the Oscar is the largest attack submarine ever built. Fast, quiet, and extremely well armed, the Oscar I & II classes are a threat to any surface ship. To date nine units have been built, and production appears to be continuing.

Otto Fuel The monopropellant (oxidizer and fuel combined) used in Mk 48 and Spearfish torpedoes.

Perisher Royal Navy Submarine Command Course.

Permit (SSN-594) First U.S. Navy production SSN with a primary ASW function. Class was renamed following the loss of USS Thresher in April 1963. Fourteen units of this class were eventually built.

Plank owners The original crew of a boat at the time of its commissioning.

Polaris (A1-A3) First generation of U.S. Navy submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The different variants each have improvements in range. The Royal Navy uses Polaris A-3 missiles in their Resolution-class SSBNs.

'Polishing the cannonball' An attempt to generate a near-perfect fire control solution that may be totally unnecessary. Polishing the cannonball takes too much time, and the submarine may lose its initiative to the intended target.

Poseidon (C-3) Second-generation U.S. Navy submarine-launched ballistic missile.

PSA Post Shakedown Availability. Maintenance period after a new submarine's initial sea trials are completed.

PWR-1 Pressurized Water Reactor-1. The type of reactor found on all current Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarines except the Vanguard-class SSBNs. PWR-1 is essentially the U.S. S5W reactor design, which was sold to the Royal Navy in 1958.

PWR-2 Pressurized Water Reactor-2. An indigenous reactor design for future Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarines. Presently being installed in the new Vanguard-class SSBNs.

Radar RAdio Detection And Ranging.

Raft A large metal frame that supports various rotating parts of machinery such as main engines or turbine generators. Through inertial damping it reduces machinery vibrations that could reach the hull.

In other words, it's heavy, and the vibrations are absorbed as they try to move the raft.

RAM Radar-Absorbing Material. A coating designed to absorb radar energy and reduce a target's ability to be detected.

RBL–L Range Bearing Launch-Large. A launch mode of Harpoon and Tomahawk antiship missiles that uses both bearing and range information. The 'Large' refers to the size of the area where the missile is to conduct its search.

RBL-S Range Bearing Launch-Small. A launch mode of Harpoon and Tomahawk antiship missiles that uses both bearing and range information. The 'Small' refers to the size of the area where the missile is to conduct its search.

Resolution (S-22) First Royal Navy SSBN. Very similar to the U.S. Lafayette-class SSBN, the Resolution class carries sixteen U.S. Polaris A-3 missiles armed with British reentry vehicles. A total of four units were built.

RNSH Royal Navy Sub Harpoon.

RORSAT Russian Radar Ocean Reconnaissance SATellite.

S6G The designation of the pressurized water reactor installed in 688-class SSNs.

SAM Surface-to-Air Missile.

SBS Special Boat Service. The Royal Navy equivalent of the U.S. Navy SEALs.

Scorpion (SSN-589) Second U.S. Navy SSN (Skipjack class) to be lost at sea,