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Submarines of the United States Navy are built in classes, using a single design for a number of boats. Minor variations occur as improvements are incorporated into the design, so later boats of a class may be more capable than earlier. Also, boats are modified, sometimes extensively, while in service, creating departures from the class standard. However, in general, all boats of a class are noticeably similar.
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. 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 in deep ocean, such as the Typhoon class, and to counter the new Soviet Akula class attack submarines. 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 depth. 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.
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 ships 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. The Jimmy Carter was modified for this role by Electric Boat and cost $887 million.
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.
General Characteristics
Class and type: Attack submarine
Displacement: Surfaced: 8,600 tons
Submerged: 9,138 tons
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 screw
Speed: Surfaced: 18 knots
Submerged: 25+ knots
Range: unlimited except by food supplies
Test depth: 2000 ft (610 m)
Complement: 140
Crew: 14 Officers; 126 Enlisted
Armament: 8x660mm torpedo tubes (50 Tomahawk cruise missile/Harpoon/Mk-48 torpedo)
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