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2004-10-28 Home Front: WoT

U.S. to use new nuclear submarines to battle terrorism

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Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-10-28 5:42:17 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 It sure is a good thing for us the Soviet Union broke the ground in so many areas. History will no doubt rec ord it as a highwater mark in technical advancement.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2004-10-28 7:27:20 AM|| 2004-10-28 7:27:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 A number of comments:
"The US Navy put into service a new submarine, which had been designed especially for the anti-terrorist struggle."
The Virginia is an adapted attack submarine design. It is a matter of semantics, I suppose, but it was not designed specifically for counter-terrorist ops from the beginning (the project started in the early 90s as a more affordable follow-on to the Seawolf class).

"It is noteworthy that the Soviet Union used to have a similar submarine: the 667A submarine was redesigned as a carrier sub, which was outfitted with two mini submarines in addition to torpedoes. The American submarine bears a certain resemblance to the Soviet sub as far as its objectives are concerned."

Naturally, the Russkies have to claim credit for the innovation, but the US has been converting subs of one kind or another for special ops since the early days of WW2, when the large pre-war subs Argonaut and Nautilus were used to take Carlson's Raiders to Makin. The Nautilus and her sister-ship, Narwhal, were later refitted as specialized transport submarines and saw extensive service in support of Phillipine guerrillas. After the war, there were a number of transport conversions of wartime fleet submarines, including Sealion and Tunny. The latter had a long and varied career over a quarter of a century, first being converted into an SSG for the Regulus cruise missile, then into a transport submarine for special ops. She saw combat in that role during the Vietnam War and may have been the last submarine to fire a deck gun in anger.
The specially built postwar SSG Grayback was also converted for transport work, as were several early SSBNs.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2004-10-28 3:40:20 PM|| 2004-10-28 3:40:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Hell, the admirals adapted the Virginias because they was looking at sub drivers being out of work.... it's an underwater littoral combat vessel! LOL! Just make sure it can kill every thing in the Straits of mollusks inside 3 hours.

Posted by Shipman 2004-10-28 4:14:43 PM|| 2004-10-28 4:14:43 PM|| Front Page Top