USS Triton, SSN 586
compiled by David Barth, October 19, 2008
Initial Deployments
Following her post-shakedown availability (PSA), Triton assumed her duties as a radar picket submarine in August 1960.
Triton is the only submarine the U.S. has built that had two reactors. During its deployment, Triton circumnavigated
the globe, following the route of Magellan. During that trip, she was commanded by Captain Beach, the famous WWII
submarine commander.
Destroyers were usually assigned radar picket duty, forming a "picket line," usually in the North Atlantic,
employing radar to detect Soviet bombers flying over the North Pole, inbound to bomb the U.S. Apparently, the U.S.
decided that a submarine radar picket boat would have more flexibility than destroyers in that it could transit between
operational stations unobserved, and in the event of a war, it could submerge and carry out other duties.
In addition to North Atlantic work, she could be tasked to move into waters close (or inside) Russian waters to collect
radar data emitted from Soviet stations on land, providing an electronic intelligence (ELINT) capability.
Triton deployed to northern European waters with the Second Fleet to participate in NATO exercises oriented around
detecting and intercepting Soviet bombers overflying the Arctic. Triton also participated in NATO exercises against
British naval forces led by the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Hermes under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Charles
Madden.
Triton climaxed the deployment with a port visit to Bremerhaven, West Germany, the first visit by a
nuclear-powered ship to a European port, from October 2 - 9, 1960. An estimated 8,000 people toured the ship
during this port-call.
For the first half of 1961, Triton conducted operational patrols and training exercises with the Atlantic Fleet. She
also deployed to monitor the Soviet 50-megaton hydrogen bomb detonation at Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Sea during late
October 1961. That bomb was originally built to be a 100-megaton device, but Soviet scientists de-rated the test article
due to the great power of even a 50-megaton bomb.
Overhaul and Conversion
During this period, the rising threat posed by Soviet submarine forces increased the Navy's demands for nuclear-powered
attack submarines with antisubmarine warfare (ASW) capability. Accordingly, upon the demise of the Navy's radar picket
submarine program following the development of the carrier-based Grumman WF-2 Tracer airborne early warning aircraft,
Triton was redesignated to hull classification symbol SSN-586 on 1 March 1961.
Triton entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in June 1962 for conversion to an attack submarine. Her crew complement
was reduced from 172 men to 159 because staffing the radars was no longer required. The Navy had no plans to
use her radar picket capability, but she still carried her BPS-26 search radar and could have fulfilled this
role.
She was overhauled and refueling at Groton, Connecticut, from September 1962 to January 1964, which included
modification to its combat information center (CIC) and berthing compartments.
Floating White House Controversy
Because she would subsequently serve as the COMSUBLANT flagship following her overhaul, one area of
continuing speculation has been whether Triton had been part of the National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA)
program. NECPA was tasked to provide afloat facilities for the President of the United States in case of an emergency
or war, with the USS Northampton (CC-1) and USS Wright (CC-2) assigned to perform this mission. Triton would have
made an attractive NECPA platform for the following reasons:
- Size - Triton's size allowed for ample growth margins for additional shipboard systems and
accommodations.
- Speed - Triton's designed speed allowed for rapid transit, with her two nuclear power plants also offering
virtually unlimited endurance and range.
- Combat Information Center (CIC) - This large shipboard facility offered substantial command-and-control
capabilities.
- Communications Suite - This would have included its very-low-frequency (VLF) communication buoy system for
receiving and sending radio transmissions while submerged.
- NBC Protection - Being a submarine, Triton offered superior protection against nuclear-biological-chemical
(NBC) contaminants over surface ships or aircraft.
- Twin reactors - The two reactors provided power redundancy in the even one had to be shut down.
However, the record remains unclear if such an explicit conversion was ever undertaken.