American submarine NR-1

NR-1

Deep submergence vessel NR-1
History
United States
Name:	NR-1
Builder:	General Dynamics Electric Boat
Laid down:	10 June 1967
Launched:	25 January 1969
In service:	27 October 1969
Out of service:	21 November 2008
Motto:	The World's Finest Deep Submersible
Nickname(s):	Nerwin
General characteristics
Class and type:	Unique submarine
Displacement:	400 tons
Length:	45 m (147 ft 8 in) overall 29.3 m (96 ft 2 in) pressure hull
Beam:	3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) 4.8 m (15 ft 9 in) at stern stabilizers.
Draft:	4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) Box keel depth (below base-line): 1.2 m (3.9 ft)
Installed power:	one nuclear reactor, one turbo-alternator
Propulsion:	2 × external motors 2 × propellers 4 × ducted thrusters (mounted diagonally in two "x-configured" pairs)
Speed:	4.5 knots (8.3 km/h; 5.2 mph) surfaced 3.5 knots (6.5 km/h; 4.0 mph) submerged
Endurance:	210-man-days nominal 16 days for a 13 person crew 330-man-days maximum 25 Days for a 13 person crew
Complement:	3 officers, 8 crewmen, 2 scientists

Deep Submergence Vessel NR-1 was a unique United States Navy (USN) nuclear-powered ocean engineering and research submarine, built by the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics at Groton, Connecticut. NR-1 was launched on 25 January 1969, completed initial sea trials 19 August 1969, and was home-ported at Naval Submarine Base New London. NR-1 was the smallest nuclear submarine ever put into operation. The vessel was casually known as "Nerwin" and was never officially named or commissioned. The U.S. Navy is allocated a specific number of warships by the U.S. Congress. Admiral Hyman Rickover avoided using one of those allocations, and he also wanted to avoid the oversight that a warship receives from various bureaus.

NR-1's missions included search, object recovery, geological survey, oceanographic research, and installation and maintenance of underwater equipment. NR-1 had the unique capability to remain at one site and completely map or search an area with a high degree of accuracy, and this was a valuable asset on several occasions.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, NR-1 conducted numerous classified missions involving recovery of objects from the floor of the deep sea. These missions remain classified and few details have been made public. One publicly acknowledged mission in 1976 was to recover parts of an F-14 that was lost from the deck of an aircraft carrier and sank with at least one AIM-54A Phoenix air-to-air missile. The secrecy typical of USN submarine operations was heightened by Rickover's personal involvement, and he shared details of NR-1 operations only on a need-to-know basis. Rickover envisioned building a small fleet of NR-1 type submarines, but only one was built due to budget restrictions.

Following the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, NR-1 was used to search for, identify, and recover critical parts of the Challenger craft. It could remain on the sea floor without resurfacing frequently, and was a major tool for searching deep waters. NR-1 remained submerged and on station even when heavy weather and rough seas hit the area and forced all other search and recovery ships into port.