Design
The new class kept the proven S5W reactor plant from the immediately preceding Skipjack's, but were a radical change in many other ways. The Threshers had the large bow-mounted sonar and angled, amidships torpedo tubes pioneered by the Tullibee. Although it used the same HY-80 as the Skipjacks, the Threshers' pressure hulls were made using an improved process that extended test depth to 1,300 ft. The engineering spaces were also redesigned, with the turbines supported on "rafts" that were suspended from the hull on sound damping isolation mounts. Their hulls were more effectively streamlined and had smaller sails, but the increased displacement over the Skipjacks lead to top speed of around 28kts, five knots slower than the Skipjacks.
Read more about this topic: Thresher/Permit Class Submarine
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