that self-noise would greatly reduce detection range, and the sonar was relocated to the bow. Due to the large sonar dome above the torpedo tubes, in the Barracuda-class the torpedo tubes remained in their traditional bow position. Service In 1951-53 the Barracudas were joined by seven converted Gato-class SSKs. These lost four of their six bow torpedo tubes and two of their four main diesel engines. The advent of nuclear power, with entering service in 1955 and the Soviet Navy responding with the first November-class submarine only three years later, created a revolution in ASW. Nuclear submarines could maintain a high speed at deep depths indefinitely. The conventional SSKs would be useless against nuclear-powered boats, except possibly in shallow water. As nuclear attack submarines were developed and deployed, they took up the ASW mission. All ten SSKs were redesignated and decommissioned or reassigned to other duties in 1957-59. The SSK program and particularly the Barracuda class were thus overtaken by events after a few years' service. Their sonar, however, proved excellent, with good convergence zone detection ranges against snorkeling submarines; it was retained on the former Gato-class SSKs and fitted on the first nuclear submarines and a few additional diesel submarines. The bow sonar array eventually became a bow sonar sphere, with angled, amidships torpedo tubes to make room for it in the Thresher class and all subsequent US SSN classes. In 1958 Bonita was used as a nuclear weapons testing target at Eniwetok in the South Pacific, part of Operation Hardtack I. Fortunately, this was designed as shock testing rather than destructive testing, and damage was light except to electronics. Ships in class References Gardiner, Robert and Chumbley, Stephen, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995, Conway Maritime Press, 1995. . External links NavSource.org postwar diesel boat photo index See also Barracuda Barracuda Barracuda