Seawolf class submarine

The Seawolf class is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines (SSN) in service with the United States Navy. The class 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.

Design

Compared to previous Los Angeles class submarines, Seawolf submarines 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 submarines 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 class and attack submarines such as the Akula class in a deep ocean environment.
Seawolf class hulls are constructed from HY-100 steel, which is stronger than the HY-80 steel employed in previous classes, in order to withstand water pressure at greater dephts . The boats also have extensive equipment to allow for "littoral", or "shallow-water" operations. The exact diving depth of this class of boats is classified; most reputable sources vary from 1600-2000 feet as a likely test depth, and from 2400-3200 feet for collapse depth. These figures are consistent with their original design parameters and not unlikely. The boats are able carry up to 50 UGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles for attacking land and sea surface targets. As in all nuclear submarines, the load out of equipment, weapons and crew affects available excess buoyancy and thus operational parameters.
The projected cost for twelve submarines of this class was $33.6 billion, but after the Cold War, construction was stopped at three boats.
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 pump-jet.

Variants

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. 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 (SSN-683). The Jimmy Carter was modified for this role by Electric Boat at the cost of $887 million.
Jimmy Carter is currently homeported at Naval Base Kitsap. In 2006, the Navy announced that it would homeport all three of its Seawolf submarines in Bangor.

Boats

• USS Seawolf (SSN-21) – commissioned and in service
• USS Connecticut (SSN-22) – commissioned and in service
• USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) – commissioned and in service