Late this winter, the initial hull section of the USS
Virginia (SSN-774)-first of the U.S. Navy's newest class of nuclear attack submarines-arrived
at the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn.
The section, weighing in excess of 1,000 tons and already stuffed with 90 percent
of the equipment and components it will need as part of the completed submarine,
was transported down the cold New England coast by barge from Electric Boat's
Quonset Point, R.I., facility.
When delivered to the Navy in 2004, the completed Virginia will surpass the
performance of any projected enemy submarine, Electric Boat Principal Engineer
Thomas N. Plante told National Defense. Cruising more than 800 feet beneath
the ocean surface at a submerged speed of more than 28 miles per hour (mph)-five
mph faster than Los Angeles-class vessels-the sleek vessel will be able to:
- Launch a salvo of 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles against targets as much as 1,000
miles inland.
- Fire four Mark 48 heavyweight torpedoes at a time against fast, deep-diving
nuclear submarines or high-performance surface ships.
- Perform anti-submarine and anti-surface ship warfare, including defense of U.S.
aircraft carriers.
- Deploy sea mines and map minefields.
- Send out unmanned underwater vehicles to handle assignments too sensitive or
too dangerous for humans.
- Deliver and support Navy SEAL commandos and their underwater vehicles for clandestine
missions.
- Conduct covert, long-term surveillance of coastal regions, nearby waterways
and other sea forces.
The Virginia will be more difficult to detect than any other submarine, Electric
Boat officials explained. Deep under the ocean surface, they noted, submarines
can be detected mainly by sonar-technology that either listens for the sounds
made by a submarine with passive sonar or projects sounds that are reflected
by a submarine's hull with active sonar.
The Virginia is being designed to be even quieter than previous nuclear submarines,
especially at slow speeds, making it more difficult to detect with passive sonar.
The effectiveness of active sonar is reduced by coating the submarine hull with
sound-absorbing materials.
With a length of 377 feet, a draft of 32 feet and a beam of 34 feet, the Virginia
is smaller than the previous generation of attack submarines, the Seawolf class.
The Virginia has a displacement of 7,800 tons submerged, compared to 9,150 tons
for the USS Seawolf (SSN 21). The Virginia has an estimated price tag of $1.05
billion, according to the Navy. The Seawolf cost about $2.1 billion.
The new class of submarines is making its appearance as the Navy and Electric
Boat celebrate the 100th anniversary of the submarine force. In 1900, the Electric
Boat Company, as it was called then, delivered the Navy's first practical, oceangoing
submarine, the USS Holland (SS-1).
Submarines played a major role during World War II. U.S. submariners-comprising
less than 2 percent of all naval personnel-sank more than 5.5 million tons of
Japanese shipping, more than by all other means combined.
During the Cold War, U.S. nuclear submarines-armed with long-range ballistic
missiles-prowled the ocean depths, as part of a strategy to discourage a first
strike by the Soviet Union.
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union a decade ago, Russia-in compliance
with arms reduction treaties with the United States-is sharply reducing its
fleets of intercontinental ballistic missiles and ballistic submarines.
As a result, the U.S. submarine fleet has shrunken 40 percent since 1990. Attack
submarines have declined from a high of 103 to 56 today, and ballistic-missile
boats have dropped from 36 to 18, all Ohio-class Trident submarines.
The 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR)-the Pentagon's plan for the next
four years-called for further reductions. According to the QDR, four Tridents
are to be deactivated in fiscal year 2003. By that same time, the number of
attack subs is to fall to no more than 50.
More Missions
Some Navy officials, however, argue that these cuts go too far. For example,
Navy Vice Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr., commander of the Atlantic Fleet's
submarine force, recently told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee that, while
numbers of U.S. submarines have shrunk in the past decade, the amount of time
spent on espionage, reconnaissance and attack missions has doubled.
While there are fewer Russian submarines to track, Navy officials point out
that, worldwide, more than 600 submarines still sail the ocean depths. Many
of them are operated by potential enemies, such as Iran, North Korea and China.
Also, attack submarines have proven to be useful platforms for launching Tomahawk
missiles against shore targets. For example, submarines fired 25 percent of
the Tomahawks launched in the 1999 NATO air war against Yugoslavia.
During the Balkans conflict, however, submarines were in such short supply
that the USS Miami (SSN 775) became the first submarine since World War II to
launch weapons against targets in different theaters-Iraq, as well as Yugoslavia.
A study for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)-released in February-concluded
that U.S. regional commanders (CINCs) would need at least 55 attack submarines
by 2015, and 62 of them by 2025, in order to respond to urgent security needs
without shortchanging other requirements of higher national interest. To meet
all of the CINCs and the intelligence community's highest requirements, the
study said, would require 68 attack submarines by 2015 and 76 by 2025.
The Navy has decided that it can safely extend the service lives of its aging
Los Angeles-class submarines by three years for a total of 33 years. Without
the extension, seven from the Los Angeles class are scheduled for retirement
within the next few years.
The Navy also is considering the option of converting as many as four of the
Tridents that are scheduled for deactivation from ballistic-missile submarines
into cruise-missile boats. Converted Tridents could also serve as "mother
ships" for up to 66 SEALs and their mini-submarines, used in intelligence
gathering and raids.
Shooting Tomahawks
"A converted Trident, which will cost us about $500 million, could shoot
154 Tomahawks," Navy Secretary Richard Danzig recently told defense writers.
"That is almost as many as we used in Kosovo or in Desert Fox in Iraq."
The Clinton administration has proposed adding $1.1 billion to the Navy shipbuilding
plan between fiscal years 2002 and 2005 to refurbish existing submarines. The
$1.1 billion would be roughly enough to refurbish four Los Angeles-class boats
or two Tridents, Ronald O'Rourke, an analyst for the Congressional Research
Service, told a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee.
Whether the ships to be updated should be from the Los Angeles class or Tridents
probably will not be decided until 2001, Danzig said.
Meanwhile, at Groton-a small, shipbuilding town that dates back to colonial-era
whalers and 19th century clippers-construction is underway on two new submarines,
the Virginia and the USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23), the third and final member of
the Seawolf class.
Named for the former president-who served as a Navy officer aboard a nuclear
submarine-the Jimmy Carter is scheduled for delivery in 2004, as is the Virginia.
When complete, the Jimmy Carter will be about 100 feet longer than the other
two Seawolf vessels, which are 353 feet long. The extra space is intended to
allow the Jimmy Carter, much like the proposed Trident conversions, to accommodate
spy missions, commando raids and mine warfare operations. The design modifications
will cost an additional $887 million above the $2.1 billion price tag for each
of the two previous Seawolf boats.
The Virginia is being built by Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding,
headquartered in Newport News, Va. The team is working under a $4.2 billion
contract to build the first four ships of the Virginia class. The two yards
are alternating delivery of the ships, with Electric Boat going first.
Ultimately, the Navy intends to build 30 Virginia-class boats, one per year
through 2006 and two to three after that, officials said. Since building an
attack submarine takes six years between initial procurement and delivery to
the Navy, meeting this goal would require a sudden increase in construction
activity, defense analysts noted.
"Electric Boat and Newport News may face a particular challenge in rapidly
hiring and training the thousands of additional workers that would be needed,"
said O'Rourke.
The problem is that Navy acquisition of submarines dropped precipitously in
the 1980s, and Electric Boat's work force also fell, from about 25,000 in the
1970s to about 9,000 now, according to Henry P. Rianhard, the shipyard's business
planning manager.
"The average age of our workers is 48.5," he told National Defense.
"Strength and agility are important in shipbuilding. The people here now
are at the top of their game. They know more about what they do than anybody
else, but they need to start passing that knowledge along."
Electric Boat officials are hopeful that a faster pace of shipbuilding will
make it easier to attract and keep trained workers. "Our workers have some
very unusual skill sets that aren't used every day," Rianhard said. "If
you don't use them, eventually you lose them.
"If we produce three subs a year, people use their skills enough that
they stay fresh. If we only do one every five to six years, the guy who did
that job the last time is gone."
Recruiting Workers
The shipyard, a major recruiter of college graduates, is planning this spring
to hit college job fairs throughout the eastern United States.
To qualify, applicants must pass a security investigation to work with super-secret
submarine technology. Once hired, they receive on-the-job training from more
senior personnel. New engineers are given the opportunity to participate in
a rotating job assignment to learn first hand the range of engineering activities
at the yard.
In recent years, the process of designing and building submarines has been
completely "re-engineered," Plante said. "These machines must
be made more affordable."
To increase efficiency, Electric Boat in recent years has developed a new construction
method, known as integrated product and process development, or design/build.
With this process, teams of Navy personnel, vendors and suppliers and Electric
Boat's own engineers, designers and waterfront construction supervisors collaborate
on submarine and manufacturing issues. The design/build process is aided by
advanced computer technology, which enables team members to view three-dimensional
digital drawings of individual components, systems and the entire submarine
in real time at every stage of the design.
"We're doing design and construction at the same time," Plante explained.
Previously, the submarine's hull was completed, then the inside was finished.
"Space was so tight," Rianhard said, "that we had to hire short
people to work inside the hull." The process was very inefficient, he said.
Now, the shipyard uses a modular approach. Each section of the hull is built
separately at Electric Boat's Quonset Point manufacturing site and packed with
components, subsystems and complete systems. The huge section is then placed
on a barge and towed down the seaboard to Groton, where the sections are assembled
as a complete hull.
The modular process makes it easier to introduce design improvements in later
Virginia-class submarines, said Electric Boat President John K. Welch. This
is important, he said, since Congress mandated continuous improvement of the
Virginia class, "requiring the Navy to build successive submarines that
are more capable and more affordable than their predecessors."
Modular construction permits insertion of new and better technology as it emerges,
Welch said. When the USS Virginia is delivered in 2004, he said, "it will
redefine the state-of-the-art submarine capability." The Virginia's advanced
technologies will include:
- Lightweight wide-aperture arrays.
- An advanced electromagnetic silencing system.
- Mine-detection and avoidance systems.
Real-time communication links to other submarines, surface ships, aircraft
and space satellites will strengthen the vessel's ability to participate in
network-centric warfare.
The Virginia's simpler, more compact and more powerful nuclear propulsion plant
eliminates the need for refueling, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in
lifecycle costs for each submarine, said EB officials. Its open-architecture
command, control, communications and intelligence system will emphasize use
of commercial, off-the-shelf systems and components. A fiber-optic cable system
enables plug-in/plug-out equipment integration.
Future Submarines
While construction continues on the Virginia, research is underway on the next-generation
submarine, planned for 2020 or so. While plans for the "future submarine,"
as it is called, are far from firm, the Navy and industry are considering such
technological innovations as:
- An electric-drive power system, similar to the one being designed for the planned
DD-21 land-attack destroyer, that would reduce the cost, noise and maintenance
requirements related to submarine propulsion and free up a great deal of space
currently occupied by the shaft and traditional mechanical systems.
- A double hull, a radical departure from past submarine design, that would increase
payload capacity, stealth and operational reach.
- Adjunct vehicles-such as mini-submarines and unmanned underwater and airborne
vehicles-that would enable future submarines to operate as "mother ships,"
conducting mine reconnaissance, electronic warfare and intelligence gathering
in areas that, otherwise, would be denied.
A Pentagon advisory panel this fall proposed that future submarines also include
space for women to serve as crew members. The Defense Advisory Council on Women
in the Services noted that submarines are the only major combat vessels in the
Navy that remain off limits to females. The council wanted to know why the Navy
cannot refit existing submarines to accommodate women.
Converted existing submarines would cost an estimated $200,000 to $400,000
per bunk, Navy officials responded. Conversion would be difficult because space
is so tight on submarines, said Rear Adm. John B. Padgett III, commander of
Submarine Group Two, headquartered at the New London Navy base, just up the
Thames River from Groton. Padgett's command includes the Seawolf.
"There's not any extra space on that ship," he told National Defense.
A tour of the Seawolf revealed that the submarine has only four tiny heads,
or bathrooms, for its crew of 13 officers and 121 enlisted men.
"There's no privacy," Padgett said. "There's no graceful way
to get in and out of the shower."
Passageways, or hallways, are so narrow that crew members must turn sideways,
unavoidably brushing against each other, as they pass one another.
The Seawolf has only 115 bunks, or racks, noted the chief of the boat, Master
Chief Bob Bentley. "Some crew members have to share their racks, sleeping
while others are on watch."
The racks for enlisted men are only 18 inches apart, from top to bottom. While
aboard the submarine, each enlisted man must store all belongings in a small
compartment only a couple of inches deep, underneath his rack's mattress.
These space considerations might be eased somewhat in the future submarine
currently being designed at Electric Boat, but it is still decades away from
completion.
Even the immediate future for the submarine force is far from certain, defense
analysts warn. They note that plans for building additional Virginia-class boats
and renovating Tridents and Los Angeles-class vessels must compete for defense
dollars with other Pentagon priorities.