{"id":223831,"date":"2026-03-15T12:54:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T17:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=223831"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:57:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:57:41","slug":"hyman-rickover-nr-1-nuclear-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/hyman-rickover-nr-1-nuclear-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rickover\u2019s NR-1: The Little Nuclear Sub That Could"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>12<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admiral Hyman Rickover bullied physics, bureaucracy, and common sense into submission and birthed the Nuclear Navy. His side quest, the pint-size NR-1 on truck tires, became the weirdest, coolest tool in Cold War deep water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Polish Kid To Nuclear Pit Boss<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Admiral Hyman Rickover was unique in the annals of the US military. Born in Poland and brought to the US as a child to escape persecution of Jews, Rickover took his first paying job at age nine, earning three cents an hour holding a light for a neighbor who was operating a machine. He entered the US Naval Academy in 1918. In 1922, Rickover graduated 107th out of a total of 540 midshipmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Admiral
Admiral Hyman Rickover was a serious piece of work. He is rightfully known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rickover was acerbic, difficult, and mean. However, he was also notorious for getting stuff done. He spent World War 2 organizing and fixing things on ever-increasing scales. He helped coordinate repairs on the battleship USS California in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks and ended the war in command of a ship repair facility in Okinawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Nuclear Power Hit The Ocean And Everything Shifted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Admiral
Admiral Rickover was the driving force behind the use of nuclear reactors in modern warships. He accompanied every new nuclear boat on its first trip out to sea. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Manhattan Project and the two prototype nuclear weapons that ended World War<\/a> 2 changed the way the world worked. A vast effort was subsequently expended developing novel applications for nuclear energy as both tools and weapons. In 1946, Hyman Rickover took a job at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His passion became nuclear power for warships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original plan was to use miniaturized nuclear reactors to drive US Navy destroyers. Rickover, however, felt that effort would be better expended on submarines. The Navy, like all bloated military enterprises, enjoys a great deal of administrative inertia. Superior officers who disagreed with the driven little man had him assigned to an office in a disused female restroom in an effort to sideline his efforts. Rickover bulled his way through in the same way he did everything else in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressurized Water, Unlimited Endurance, New Tactics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"USS
The USS Nautilus was the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine. The Nautilus fundamentally changed the nature of naval combat. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In February of 1949, Rickover threw himself into the development of a pressurized water nuclear reactor for submarine propulsion. The prospects were indeed tantalizing. If he could pull this off, Rickover faced the possibility of a stealthy warship that could operate submerged indefinitely. With essentially unlimited energy, a theoretical nuclear-powered submarine could make its own breathable air and clean water. It could patrol the world\u2019s oceans at will, loitering as needed to avoid detection. At that point, crew endurance and food stores became the limiting factors in operational deployment. Rickover felt that this was a crusade worth fighting for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His was an inexplicably unpopular position. As a result, Captain Rickover\u2019s superiors wanted him put out of the Navy for failure to achieve flag rank. The list of names the Navy submitted to the US Senate in 1953 for congressional approval of admiral rank did not include Rickover\u2019s. Where approval of this list is typically a fairly routine, perfunctory thing, the Senate, in this case, refused its blessing without Rickover. The Secretary of the Navy subsequently convened a special promotion board with the express purpose of approving Rickover for that list. The US Senate left the exchange happy, and Rickover got his star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"S1W
This is the S1W nuclear reactor that powered the USS Nautilus. It represented cutting-edge 1950s-era engineering. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The S1W reactor that Rickover developed was a miracle of 1950s-era technology. Highly reliable and exceptionally safe, this device would fit into a submarine hull with a 28-foot beam. In 1954, the US Navy commissioned the USS Nautilus, powered by an S1W. The Nautilus was the world\u2019s first operational nuclear-powered submarine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety Record That Shamed The Soviets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"USS
The Nautilus suffered an underwater collision with the American aircraft carrier USS Essex in 1966. However, none of Rickover’s boats ever suffered a serious reactor failure. Public domain. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Building a compact, self-contained nuclear power plant was a Gordian challenge. Making that device safe to operate for long periods underneath the sea bordered on impossible. However, Rickover pulled it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of the Russian nuclear submarine program, there have been fourteen known catastrophic reactor breaches. Thanks to Rickover and his superhuman compulsion for detail, the US Navy has had none. Spillover tech from US Navy nuclear programs contributed substantially to the safety of American terrestrial reactors as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Interview Chair Trick And Other Rickover Tortures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rickover was driven beyond all reason. He was also a miserable boss. He personally supervised the launch and shakedown sortie of every nuclear boat launched on his watch. During his tenure as chief of the Navy\u2019s nuclear programs, every candidate for the nuclear power course had to interview with him personally. The content and nature of these interviews became the stuff of legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a friend who survived his encounter with Rickover. He said that, for starters, Rickover sawed off the front two legs of the chair you sit in a bit shorter than the back two. This meant that if you tried to get comfortable during the interview, you would gradually slide forward out of the chair. Rickover then proceeded to grill you mercilessly just to see how you responded under pressure. Candidates who lost their composure were remanded to Rickover\u2019s unlit coat closet for a time to regain their wits before resuming their interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power, Eccentricity, And The Personal Submarine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Elon
If I were as rich and cool as this guy, I’d be weird, too. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All seriously powerful people are eccentric. These eccentricities either drive them to their unusual positions or develop subsequent to their arrival. I would submit Elon Musk, Howard Hughes, Donald Trump, George Soros<\/a>, Adolf Hitler, and Vladimir Putin as examples. These eccentricities are not necessarily bad. However, there inevitably results a sense of entitlement to one degree or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not blaming these people. Were I Elon Musk with half a trillion dollars in the bank and my own rocket ship company, I\u2019d expect some cool perks as well. In Rickover\u2019s case, he felt he needed a personal submarine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIA vs Rickover Over Nuclear Turf<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"USS
The nuclear submarine USS Halibut was eventually acquired by the CIA for clandestine use during the Cold War. Hyman Rickover was absolutely livid over that. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At such rarefied levels, military operations often distil down to petty little turf wars. Flag officers are absolutely insane about maintaining their own little fiefdoms. Hyman Rickover felt that all nuclear-powered submarines should answer to him personally. Naval Intelligence and the CIA felt otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CIA co-opted the USS Halibut as an underwater intelligence gathering platform as part of Operation IVORY BELLS. IVORY BELLS was a fabulously successful initiative designed to locate, isolate, and tap Soviet underwater communication cables. The communists assumed the cables were secure, so they did not bother encrypting their communications. Once we tapped into these cables, we could surveil Russian military activities in real time with no one being the wiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NR-1 The Tiny Nuclear Sub That Went Where Divers Could Not<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"NR-1
NR-1 was a small nuclear-powered submarine that was originally proposed as a search and rescue vessel. Reality was a good bit murkier. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The very existence of the Halibut was like sand on Hyman Rickover\u2019s eyeballs. When he realized that the CIA wasn\u2019t going to give its spy submarine to him, Rickover decided that the next best thing would just be to build his own. Rickover\u2019s personal nuclear-powered midget sub was designated NR-1. NR-1 was launched in 1969 at a cost of $30 million. That would be about a quarter billion dollars today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NR-1 was an exceptionally capable machine. She could safely descend more than 2,300 feet deep and use her remote manipulator arms to do Sneaky Pete stuff on the ocean floor at depths well beyond the capabilities of even hard-suit divers. To thrive at those depths, the hull had to be perfectly circular and utterly uniform. Tolerances were less than a millimeter all around. Under Rickover\u2019s direction, naval engineers pulled it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not even the Father of the Nuclear Navy could write a check for a quarter billion bucks without some good reason. Rickover, therefore, declared that NR-1\u2019s mission was actually Deep Sea Rescue. While an honorable pursuit, NR-1 didn\u2019t technically possess the means to rescue anybody. It just went really, really deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside NR-1 What Made It Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Early
This is an early concept drawing of NR-1. You can see the truck tires on the bottom that allowed the sub to creep along the ocean floor and gather bits of discarded Russian kit. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While NR-1 was an exceptionally capable machine, it was also cramped and fairly austere on the inside. Crew space for the 7-man complement was minimal, and support equipment for stuff like food preparation was decidedly suboptimal. The boat would sortie for up to a month at a time, during which the crew subsisted on instant TV dinners. However, the tech built into the vessel was unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead shielding for submersible reactors is always a technical challenge in submarine design. NR-1 got around this by incorporating a single lead bulkhead that separated the miniaturized reactor in back from the crew spaces up front. Once complete, NR-1 would indeed operate submerged indefinitely. In actual practice, the limiting factor in operational deployments was the capacity of the toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NR-1 incorporated a set of wheels on the bottom that allowed the sub to creep along the ocean floor. These wheels were equipped with otherwise standard Goodyear truck tires. One crewmember was positioned on his belly in the bottom of the sub behind a set of portholes. In this configuration, NR-1 crept along the sea floor gathering up the remains of Soviet nuclear missiles that splashed down after operational tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What We Know About NR-1 Missions And What We Don\u2019t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"NR-1
NR-1 was a weird boat commissioned by kind of a weird guy. It was, however, undeniably cool. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even today, nobody is completely sure what NR-1 actually did operationally. Her conning tower and sail were painted orange in keeping with the charade that she was actually a search and rescue boat. In 1976, NR-1 located an F14 fighter jet that rolled off the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy and sank in 1,960 feet of water. Ten years later, she helped locate the remains of the space shuttle Challenger after it broke up in flight. NR-1 was formally retired in 2009.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
Hyman Rickover served through thirteen Presidential administrations. Reagan eventually forced him to retire at age 82. Rickover was rendered apoplectic by that. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hyman Rickover got a special dispensation from Congress to spend a total of 63 years in uniform. He was the longest-serving member of the US armed forces in American history. Rickover served under thirteen different Presidential administrations and oversaw 3,000 ship-years of accident-free nuclear warship operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"USS
This is the second nuclear-powered attack submarine to be named after Hyman Rickover. It remains in service today. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite his legendarily grueling work ethic, Rickover was married twice and fathered one child. His first wife died of natural causes after 41 years of marriage. The Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Hyman Rickover was commissioned in 2021 and remains in active service today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this draconian approach, or more likely because of it, US Navy nuclear power officers have earned a righteous reputation for excellence in both military and civilian circles. Rickover succumbed to a stroke in 1986 at age 86, four years after he retired from the Navy. His nicknames included \u201cThe Father of the Nuclear Navy,\u201d \u201cThe Kindly Old Gentleman,\u201d or, simply, \u201cKOG.\u201d Rickover\u2019s ghost still drives the Navy\u2019s nuclear power program to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NR-1 Specifications And Quick Reference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Model<\/th>NR-1<\/td><\/tr>
Caliber<\/th>N\/A<\/td><\/tr>
Barrel Length<\/th>N\/A<\/td><\/tr>
Overall Length<\/th>N\/A<\/td><\/tr>
Weight<\/th>N\/A<\/td><\/tr>
Capacity<\/th>7 crew<\/td><\/tr>
MSRP<\/th>$30,000,000 (1969)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pros And Cons Of Rickover\u2019s NR-1 Legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n