Gato Class Submarines. Interesting Facts For All Passionate Modelists Out There

The Gato submarines were built by the Electric Boat Company and operated by the United States Navy. The predecessor to the Gato class submarines was the Tambor class submarine and the Gato was succeeded by the Balad class submarines. The Gato class submarines formed the core of the United States Navy fleet that destroyed the Japanese Merchant ships and the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. The name Gato is derived from a small species of cat shark. There were 77 units of the Gato class submarines completed between 1940 and 1944. 57 of these Gato class submarines are retired now and 20 were lost between 1943 and 1969. 6 are preserved in the United States Navy Museum.





The design objective of the Gato class submarine was that they were to act as "spy" ships. They were to scout ahead of the main Navy fleet and report on the enemies’ fleet composition, speed and course. They were to attack the enemy fleet in preparation for the Main Navy action. The rationale was that a submarine was to have high surface speed long range and endurance (time under the water) and armed heavily with weaponry.





The Gato class submarine is powered by the diesel electric and has a displacement of 1525 tons on surface and 2424 tons when submerged. It has a length of 95m and a beam of 8.3m and a draft of 5.2. This Gato class submarine is propelled by 4 x diesel engines driving, electrical generators, sargo batteries, 4 x high speed electric motors with reduction gears and two propellers, producing 4,000kW surface power and 2,040kW (2740 shp) submerged power and a speed of 39km/hour (which is 21 knots) and 17km/hour (9 knots) when submerged.


The Gato class submarine has a range of 20,000km (11,000 nautical miles) at 19km/hour (10 knots).





It has an endurance of 3 days at 3.7km/hour when submerged and 75 days on patrol. The test depth is 90m (300 feet) and carries a complementary crew of 6 Navy officers and 54 enlisted or service men. It is armed with 10 x 533mm torpedo tubes, 1 x 75mm/50 caliber deck gun and 20mm cannon. The Gato class submarine was preceded by the Tambor class submarine which was 5 feet shorter in length in the engine room section. The construction of Gato class submarine was of partal double hull construction.





The inner pressure hull was wrapped by an outer hydro-dynamic hull whose void areas were used for fuel and ballast tanks. The submarines would submerge when an enemy fleet would approach and resurface for patrols. They were all air-conditioned and had refrigeration for storing foods and distillation units for fresh water; clothes washers and bunkers for service men.





The Gato class submarines were used for patrols in the Pacific operations between Hawaii, Japan and Scotland to patrol the Bay of Biscay and for operations in North Africa. The weaponry on the Gato class submarines were the steam powered Mark 14 torpedo which was later replaced with the electric Mark 18 torpedo. These submarines could dive and escape the enemy’s aerial attacks and were useful to the United States Navy during the Second World War. They were decommissioned in 1969 as new technological advances emerged in the submarine industry and some are on display in the United States Navy Museum.