 USS Seawolf (SSN-21) |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | General Dynamics Electric Boat |
| Operators: | United States of America |
| Preceded by: | Los Angeles class |
| Succeeded by: | Virginia class |
| Built: | 1989 – 2005 |
| In commission: | 1997 – present |
| Planned: | 29 |
| Completed: | 3 |
| Cancelled: | 26 |
| Active: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
Surfaced: 8,600 tons Submerged: 9,138 tons[1] |
| Length: | 353 ft (107 m) |
| Beam: | 40 ft (12 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 S6W PWR 45,000 hp 1 secondary propulsion submerged motor 1 shaft 1 propeller |
| Speed: |
Surfaced: 18 knots Submerged: 25+ knots |
| Range: | unlimited except by food supplies |
| Test depth: | 2,000 ft (610 m)[2] |
| Complement: | 140 |
| Crew: | 14 Officers; 126 Enlisted |
| Armament: | 8 × 660mm torpedo tubes (50 Tomahawk cruise missile/Harpoon/Mk-48 torpedo) |
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The Seawolf class attack submarine (SSN) was the intended successor to the Los Angeles class, ordered at the end of the Cold War in 1989. At one time, an intended fleet of 29 submarines was to be built over a ten-year period, later reduced to twelve submarines. The end of the Cold War and budget constraints led to the cancellation in 1995 of any further additions to the fleet, leaving the Seawolf class limited to just three boats. This, in turn, led to the design of the smaller Virginia class.
Compared to previous Los Angeles class submarines, Seawolf subs are larger, faster, and significantly quieter; they also carry more weapons and have twice as many torpedo tubes, for a total of 8. As a result of their advanced design, however, Seawolf subs were much more expensive. They were intended to combat the then-threat of large numbers of advanced Soviet ballistic-missile submarines such as the Typhoon and attack submarines such as Akula classes, in a deep ocean environment.
Seawolf hulls were constructed from HY-100 steel, rather than the weaker HY-80 steel employed in previous classes, to better withstand water pressure at greater depths.[3][4] The boats also have extensive equipment for shallow-water operations, including a floodable silo capable of simultaneously deploying eight combat swimmers and their equipment. The boats carry up to 50 UGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles for attacking land and sea surface targets.
The projected cost for twelve submarines of this class was $33.6 billion dollars, but after the Cold War, construction was stopped at three boats.[5]
The class uses the more advanced ARCI Modified AN/BSY-2 combat system, which includes a new, larger spherical sonar array, a wide aperture array (WAA), and a new towed-array sonar. Each boat is powered by a single S6W nuclear reactor, delivering 52,000 hp (39 MW) to a low-noise screw.
The USS Jimmy Carter is roughly 100 feet (30 m) longer than the other two boats of her class due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces.[6] The MMP may also be used as an underwater splicing chamber for tapping of undersea fiber optic cables. This role was formerly filled by the decommissioned USS Parche. The Jimmy Carter was modified for this role by Electric Boat and cost $887 million.[7]
Jimmy Carter is currently homeported in Bangor, Washington. In 2006, the Navy announced that it would homeport all three of its Seawolf submarines in Bangor.
Boats
- Seawolf (SSN-21), commissioned and in service
- Connecticut (SSN-22), commissioned and in service
- Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), commissioned and in service
References
- ^ "The US Navy - - Fact File". http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4100&tid=100&ct=4. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ "SSN Seawolf Class Attack Submarine". http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/seawolf/. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ Polmar, Norman (2004). The Naval Institute guide to the ships and aircraft of the U.S. fleet (18 ed.). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 81-82. ISBN 9781591146858. http://books.google.com/books?id=8MwyTX-iA2wC&pg=PA81.
- ^ Zimmerman, Stan (2000). Submarine Technology for the 21st Century. Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 9781552123300. http://books.google.com/books?id=SjfgOfV8Am0C&pg=PA81.
- ^ "SSN-21 Seawolf Class". http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/ssn-21.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ "USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23)". http://www.submarinehistory.com/JimmyCarter.html. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- ^ "Seawolf Class". http://www.gdeb.com/programs/seawolf/. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
See also
- Virginia class submarine
- Los Angeles class submarine
- List of submarine classes of the United States Navy
- Submarines in the United States Navy
- List of submarines of the United States Navy
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