14. Rickover supported the British effort to obtain nuclear submarines after first resisting it
In 1955 USS Nautilus displayed features which immediately rendered most of the world’s navies’ antisubmarine warfare techniques obsolete. Nautilus was simply too fast, could dive too deeply, and most of all, could operate too quietly. Joint operations with the British and American navies made it apparent to the Royal Navy it needed nuclear submarines to remain relevant. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Mountbatten, requested an opportunity to inspect Nautilus in 1955. Rickover refused. He opposed the transfer of American technology, even to the British, notwithstanding the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain. He also held the highborn Mountbatten, an uncle to Prince Philip and the second cousin of Queen Elizabeth in the disdain held by the son of poor Polish immigrants.
In 1956 Rickover toured Britain and concluded the British were many years from achieving nuclear-powered submarines for their fleet. He requested a private meeting with Mountbatten in which he offered his support for the British obtaining American nuclear technology. In a blunt assessment of the British program, Rickover asked Mountbatten, “Do you want a working reactor plant now, or would you rather preserve British pride?” HMS Dreadnought, the first British nuclear submarine was commissioned in 1963. It carried the entire propulsion system of the American Skipjack class submarines, including a fifth-generation nuclear reactor built by Westinghouse to Rickover’s standards. For subsequent British nuclear submarines a reactor plant developed by Vickers and Rolls-Royce, adopting much of the American design and technology, were selected for use.