[Milsurplus] OT: Loss of USS Thresher, SSN-593 - One-Half Century Today

[Mike Morrow]

Today it has been 50 years since the USS Thresher sank during
deep dive testing for sea trials after completing its 1962-1963
post-shakedown availability at Portsmouth (NH) Naval Shipyard
(PNSY).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593) 

Nuclear submarine designs were significantly altered afterwards,
but existing boats like mine had none of those modifications until
almost 15 years later.  Many never got the full SUBSAFE package
although they remained in service carrying Trident I UGM-96 (C4)
SLBMs until decommissioning in the early and middle 1990s.

One simple thing learned from the loss of Thresher was to not
conduct initial deep dive testing in water deeper than submarine
crush depth.  Unfortunately, from PNSY, water deep enough to do
that testing but not deeper than crush depth takes several days
of transit time to reach.  The other important result was the
development of a fast scram recovery procedure for rapid reactor
restart.  Sometimes the obvious just isn't.

Mike / KK5F