Uzushio-class submarine

Uzushio (SS-566)

The Uzushio-class submarine was a series of seven submarines in service with Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force during the Cold War between 1972 and the mid-1990s. They were the first generation of the teardrop type submarine that valued the underwater performance against that of the preceding conventional-hull type . Many were converted to training submarines (ATSS) towards the end of their lives.

General characteristics

The Uzushio class was the first Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine design to incorporate the teardrop hull. The Uzushios had a double hull construction which used NS-63 high-tensile steel to allow for a deeper diving depth of . The submarines measured long between perpendiculars and Template:Cvt at the beam. They had a maximum draught of Template:Cvt and had a standard displacement of and a Template:Cvt displacement when submerged.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

The submarines were powered by a diesel-electric system composed of two Kawasaki-MAN V8V24/30AMTL diesel engines and two electric motors turning one shaft creating surfaced and submerged.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn This gave the boats a maximum speed of surfaced and dived.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The submarines incorporated a separate emergency blowing system to all the vessels to surface rapidly and had a 3D automatic steering system which combined automatic depth and automatic direction maintenance systems.Template:Sfn

The Uzushios were armed with Japanese Type 89 torpedoes fired from six torpedo tubes located amidships.Template:Sfn The submarines had their sonar array located in the bow which was composed of a ZPS-4 surface search sonar, a ZQQ-2, ZQQ-3, or ZQQ-4 passive/active search sonar suite and a SQS-36JTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn or SQS-4 active sonar.Template:Sfn

Boats

Project no.	Building no.	Pennant no.	Name	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Note
S118	8081	SS-566		25 September 1968	11 March 1970	21 January 1971	Decommissioned 24 March 1987, scrapped
	8082	SS-567		21 June 1969	27 January 1971	2 February 1972	Decommissioned 11 March 1988, scrapped
S119	8083	SS-568/ ATSS-8001		9 July 1970	18 March 1972	25 November 1972	Converted to auxiliary training submarine (ATSS-8001) on 24 March 1989, decommissioned 25 March 1992, sunk as target off Izu Ōshima August 1994
	8084	SS-569/ ATSS-8002		8 May 1971	22 November 1972	28 September 1973	Converted to auxiliary training submarine (ATSS-8002) on 8 June 1990, decommissioned 15 March 1993, scrapped
	8085	SS-570/ ATSS-8003		5 July 1972	22 February 1974	27 November 1974	Converted to auxiliary training submarine (ATSS-8003) on 20 March 1991, decommissioned 1 March 1994, scrapped
S119A	8086	SS-571/ ATSS-8004		6 July 1973	30 June 1975	30 January 1976	Converted to auxiliary training submarine (ATSS-8004) on 6 June 1992, decommissioned 26 July 1995, scrapped
	8087	SS-572/ ATSS-8005		14 April 1975	19 May 1977	7 March 1978	Converted to auxiliary training submarine (ATSS-8005) on 14 August 1994, decommissioned 1 August 1996, scrapped
	~	One hull canceled because of the 1973 oil crisis, naval budget was used for the and others.