• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

SSN Guglielmo Marconi

Already at the beginning of the 1960s the inadequate funding available did not allow even to formulate medium-term naval programs; It was therefore necessary to plan new construction as made available resources, also because most of the ships of 1958 came into line in the next decade, to carry out the full of its activity only in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time the Navy, whose Summit was from May 1962 Admiral Ernesto Giuriati, manifested officially an interest in the nuclear-powered vessels, with the project for a submarine attack baptized Guglielmo Marconi.

Giulio Andreotti sought to officialize the dream of generals and admirals, speaking at the Italian Senate in 1959, when he was Minister of Defense. He announced the construction of a nuclear submarine which was already ready named: Guglielmo Marconi. There was only one problem to overcome: to convince the United States to provide the enriched uranium for the nuclear reactor. Falco Accame, former Chairman of the Defense Commission of the Chamber, has a long memory and recalled that, on 22 December 1962, on the occasion of the launch of Cruiser Duilio to Castellammare di Stabia, Andreotti said: "we want to bring forward as soon as possible the project of construction of a nuclear submarine that will meet the aspirations of our Navy and also represent a step forward towards that technical project to which we must all cooperate."

The class Guglielmo Marconi of the Italian Navy was to be composed of two units built at Italcantieri (the name of the era of Fincantieri) in the late 1950s. Availing itself of the experiences made by the Americans with the experimental submarine Albacore, a a nuclear-powered attack submarine was designed that would be named Guglielmo Marconi, which should be followed by a sister unit.

The specifications were 83 meters in overall length, maximum diameter-resistant hull 9.55 m, displacement of 2,300 tons (3,400 immersed), 12 thousand hours of autonomy. It appears that it would have been essentially a stretched Skipjack with a longer cylindrical midships hull section (which agrees well with the identical beam of 9.6m and a length of 83 vs. 76m). The sail, torpedo tube arrangement, control surfaces and propeller appear to be the same and the reactor was intended to be an American S5W as well. Propulsion was to be entrusted to a pressurised water nuclear power plant from 30 MW thermal power, derived from Westinghouse S5W model and studied by CAMEN, which fed two turbines (high and low pressure) coupled to a spoiler. The maximum power output on single axis with 5-blade propeller was 15,000 horses, which had to be a continuous maximum speed of 30 knots.

The hull was a solid of revolution (series 58) whose forms were derived from the experiences made by the US Navy experimental boat, and Albacore that allowed the development of high speed dive. Maneuverability was assured by Government cruciform aft bulkheads surfaces (horizontal and vertical rudders), while the horizontal bow rudders were placed on the falsatorre in order to improve the performance of electroacoustic sound sensors. Four watertight bulkheads bounding the local torpedo (533 6 tubes on two horizontal rows of 3 with 30 guns), the compartment for the control of the unit and the local life (4 levels), the reactor compartment, the compartment of the distribution of electricity and diesel-generator group underlying emergencyand, finally, the Powertrain compartment and two turbo-alternators groups with a unitary power of 1800 kW.

Planned expenditure of 30 billion lire in 1959, which made the succeeding continuation of the project, given the budgetary difficulties of the ARMED FORCES. In addition to that, he missed the American un-willingness to provide the necessary technical and logistic assistance. As a consequence of the development of American nuclear propulsion led by Admiral Rickover, the responsibility for naval nuclear reactor development is shared between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Navy and resides in an organization in DOE known as "Naval Reactors" [usually referenced as NR]. As with the submarine arm of the Navy (the "Silent Service"), Naval Reactors is one of the least known and most closed organizations of the U.S. government. Protected by congressional committees, personnel of Naval Reactors are the nuclear high priests of DOE who hold tightly to their nuclear crown jewels--highly classified nuclear technical know-how--which they zealously guard against any release which could narrow the margin with the Soviets.

The Marconi however was not the only project on nuclear propulsion units, but rather the more focused the attention of critics and proponents of a world-ranking Navy.