The Navy's Most Shadowy Spy Is 450 Feet Long & Named After Jimmy Carter

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-navys-most-shadowy-spy-is-450-feet-long-named-aft-1699659302/+kcampbelldollaghan




Submarines are a lot like Batman, they are covered in rubber and are great fighters, but they are gadget toting stealth detectives at their core. Of the Navy’s sub force, there is no boat more capable at sleuthing under the high seas than the heavily modified Seawolf Class submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23.

The 12,150 ton displacement USS Jimmy Carter, whose namesake qualified in Submarines during his pre-Presidential naval career, is one of only three Seawolf Class submarines ever built. The Seawolfs are relics of the final stages of the Cold War and are the most lethal fast attack submarines ever created. The F-22 Raptors of the sea, they could dive incredibly deep, could haul along at speeds approaching 40 knots, and they were quieter than any other nuclear submarine on the planet. They were also armed with a cache of 50 weapons and wide 660mm torpedo tubes.

Seeing as the first boat was launched during the “peace dividend” years of the 1990s, its $3B price tag was thought to be too high and its ‘blue water’ sub hunting mission was becoming a secondary priority for the US Navy as the majority of Russia’s submarine fleet was rotting next to a pier. Instead, future subs would need to be more multi-role minded, cheaper to acquire and be more at home in shallow, littoral environments close to shore. As a result, the Seawolf class was replaced by the smaller, cheaper, and somewhat more flexible Virginia Class that remains in serial production today.

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