The nuclear-powered Virginia [SSN-774]-class attack submarine and guided-missile submarine programs will give the Navy the capability to covertly collect intelligence and then act quickly and decisively across a range of missions in the world's oceans and littorals.
In 2002, when Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Vern Clark issued his vision for the 21st-century Navy, "Sea Power 21," he set a goal for the sea service to transform to meet current and future requirements. Like the rest of the Navy, the submarine force is answering the call. Its newest platforms—the Virginia (SSN-774)-class attack submarines and the converted Ohio-(SSBN-726)-class guided-missile submarines—both support the nation's need for flexible, surge-ready, and responsive forces.
The Virginia Class
When the Berlin Wall fell, the U.S. Navy was building the most complicated and capable submarines in the world. The Seawolf (SSN-21) class was to be the ultimate open-water hunter-killer submarine, but the price of this amazing platform was steep, and the Navy recognized that acquisition of the entire 30-ship class was not in the nation's best interest. So instead, the Navy decided to go back to the drawing board and design—from the keel up—a new submarine that would be able to excel in both blue-water and littoral operations.
In 1989, General Dynamics Electric Boat initiated a comprehensive review of nuclear submarine design and construction practices that promised to reduce acquisition and life-cycle costs. The process was mapped step by step for each technical discipline, and Electric Boat settled on a core process to eliminate inefficiencies. Electric Boat also evaluated design and construction methods used by producers of aircraft, automobiles, electrical power plant equipment, and shipbuilding components. This review included studying the concurrent engineering process, in which a design is optimized to enhance the build process, and an evaluation of computer tools and software used to create future generations of ships.
Using the lessons learned from this review, the Navy, Electric Boat, and Newport News Shipbuilding worked together between 1989 and 1992 to accomplish nine tradeoff studies on size and operating depth for the Virginia class. The team included submariners, naval engineers, industry partners, and just about every stakeholder that would play a part in the new submarine's life and allowed each group to help shape the new submarine.
The Virginia class would have the Seawolf's stealth, albeit with a 30% reduction in total ownership costs. But because operating depth and speed no longer are as tactically crucial to submarine missions, and because they greatly influence a submarine's cost, the new class would not have the Seawolf's considerable maximum speed and operational depth. In addition, because the new submarines would have to be able to deploy covertly for months at a time with high combat effectiveness, they would be nuclear powered. Indeed, the Virginia-class reactor will not need refueling over the life of the ship. The submarine also will be able to carry out a wide array of missions, including antisubmarine, antisurface, and mine warfare; strike; special operations; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations.
To design such a submarine, the Navy worked with Electric Boat using an Integrated Design Manufacturing System (IDMS) to help reduce program costs. The Virginia is the first U.S. warship designed almost entirely by computer, and it had 84% fewer design changes identified by trades as compared to the Seawolf, the last submarine designed on paper. In addition, because it let them see every area of the submarine in three dimensions, the IDMS allowed engineers to dispense with most of the expensive wooden mock-ups used to arrange equipment and lay piping and conduit throughout the ship. The Navy is leveraging the lessons learned during the Virginia's design on subsequent submarine design efforts, such as the SSGN conversion, and both the process and methodology are available for application to other Navy programs as well.
The Navy also has implemented improved submarine construction practices. Instead of fabricating the pressure hull and then cutting holes through which to load equipment, for example, the Virginia class uses modular design and construction. This approach, first introduced late in the Ohio-class SSBN construction program, ensures that many of the Virginia's components are installed before the pressure hull is sealed. Where the Virginia and Ohio differ is that more of the Virginia's, components are fitted inside the hull cylinders before the sections are welded together. This eliminates unnecessary pressure hull cuts and means the Virginia's equipment and systems can be more easily tested and groomed because they are installed in the modules in a shop environment prior to being loaded into the hull cylinder. This modularity also provides flexibility for accommodating future technology upgrades.
An example of this is the Virginia's Command and Control System Module (CCSM). Before it went into the hull, the CCSM was tested, groomed, and even upgraded on land at a test site at General Dynamics Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. Using this facility, the Navy was able to test most of the submarine's nonpropulsion electronic systems earlier in the construction sequence and, for the first time in the history of submarine construction, take the command-and-control system off the critical path. The CCSM also earned the Operational Test & Evaluation Force's highest ratings of "potentially operationally effective" and "potentially operationally suitable."
The Virginia design relies heavily on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies rather than on military specification components. The Program Office has embraced the use of commercially available products as both a cost-cutting measure and to allow for easier and more frequent software and hardware upgrades. COTS technologies also have allowed the Virginia to have a nearly complete open architecture computing environment, increasing performance, enhancing connectivity between subsystems, and reducing design costs. The Virginia, the first platform designed with this open architecture, has set a positive precedent for the Navy.
The Virginia class's internal and external configurations both are truly revolutionary. For example, the Photonics mast, a non-hull-penetrating replacement for the traditional optical periscope, has permited design changes both inside and out. Because the periscope no longer connects the control room and the sail, designers were able to move the sail forward for improved hydrodynamics and relocate the control room farther aft and down one deck, enlarging this traditionally small space and allowing for a more utilitarian layout.
Thanks to the Photonics mast, the Virginia's sailors can view the topside world via color, high-resolution black-and-white, or infrared cameras. Flat-panel screens will display what the cameras see at several different work stations, thereby providing ship control, sonar, navigation, weapons control, and other vital command-and-control systems with the information to safely operate the ship from a single control room. Also as a result of the Photonics mast system and attendant design changes, the captain's station has been reengineered to afford improved connectivity with the ship's piloting and weapons stations.
Because submarine missions are moving ever more into shallow waters, the Virginia has been optimized to live and fight in the littorals. Her sonar suite is designed to "see" clearly despite the harsh acoustic environment associated with brown-water operations. It includes the bow sphere, a Lightweight Wide Aperture Array, a TB-16 and a TB-29 towed array, plus a chin- and a sail-mounted array. The sonar suite will be adept at locating quiet conventionally powered submarines and naval mines, both of which pose a significant threat as the Navy moves closer to shore. In addition, the Virginia will be able to operate the Long-term Mine Reconnaissance System, further improving her mine warfare capabilities.
To ensure the Virginia class will be able to communicate with allied forces and thereby enable its participation in ForceNet, the Program Executive Officer (Submarines) and Program Executive Officer (C4I and Space) are building the Common Submarine Radio Room (CSRR). The CSRR, designed to provide the Virginia with unprecedented communication capabilities, has proved so promising that it is being backfilled into all in-service submarines. Further establishing its value to ForceNet goals and time-critical strike, the CSRR will be able to receive and send information that can be used by follow-on forces, allowing them to get an up-close, real-time view of a situation even if they are thousands of miles away.
The Virginia is designed to operate with a smaller crew-she will deploy with fewer than 120 men, compared to approximately 134 in the Los Angeles (SSN-688) and Seawolf classes. This is the result of technological advances that have improved efficiency and allowed the Navy to substantially reduce the number of watch slanders needed to operate the ship. At the Virginia's ship control station, for example, instead of having four men controlling the boat-a diving officer of the watch, a chief of the watch, a helmsman, and a planesman at the yokes-two submariners will operate touch screens and joysticks that, like modern aircraft, control the ship with fly-by-wire systems.
The Virginia design eliminates the practice of hot bunking, and not simply because of the smaller underway crew. The type commanders and requirements developers carefully thought out the design of the submarine's living quarters. Bunks mostly are grouped into six-man berthing areas that offer sailors both more privacy and their own personal stowage spaces. The designers also did away with passageways through the crew's quarters.
When Virginia goes into harm's way, she will give our sailors the best tools for success. With more internal weapons than an Improved Los Angeles-class, submarine and 12 vertical launch tubes, the Virginia will be able to conduct sustained antisubmarine and antisurface operations that are integral to Sea Shield. She also will be able to conduct Sea Strike operations using her vertical launch tubes and torpedo-tube-launched missiles. In addition, she will be able to carry more Special Operations Forces than an Improved Los Angeles for longer periods thanks to a reconfigurable torpedo room that provides SEALs with a dedicated berthing space, weapons and equipment stowage, and even a workout facility. An innovative lock-in/lock-out chamber and the ability to host either a dry-deck shelter or an Advanced SEAL Delivery System also make the Virginia a powerful, versatile, and stealthy Sea Strike and Sea Basing platform.
As of june 2004, the Navy has ten Virginia-class submarines under contract, with six in various stages of construction. The lead ship, christened on 16 August 2003, is 96% complete. On 7 November 2003, the second submarine, the Texas (SSN-775), had her pressure hull complete ceremony; she is 84% complete. The next two units, the Hawaii (SSN-776) and the North Carolina (SSN-777), are 58% and 40% complete, respectively. The unnamed fifth ship began construction in August 2003, and SSN-779 commenced construction in January 2004.
The nation's two remaining submarine builders, General Dynamics Electric Boat, the Virginia class's prime contractor, and Northrop Grumman Newport News, its main subcontractor for construction, each build specific sections of the submarines and alternate delivery. General Dynamics Electric Boat is scheduled to deliver the Virginia in the summer of 2004 and the Hawaii in December 2006; Northrop Grumman Newport News is scheduled to deliver the Texas in June 2005 and the North Carolina in December 2007.
On 14 August 2003, the Navy signed a block-buy contract for follow-on Virginia-class submarines in fiscal years (FY) 2003-2007. This is the traditional way the Navy buys submarines, but this contract allowed the Navy, upon congressional approval, to purchase these units via multiyear procurement. With the FY 2003 ship already funded, Congress authorized the Navy in FY 2004 to purchase five submarines via multiyear procurement—one per year between FY 2004 and 2008. This will save the taxpayers $400 million because the Navy and its industrial partners will be able to take advantage of economies of scale, by making quantity purchases of materials, and then construct the ships more efficiently. This is a clear example of how the submarine force is embracing the Sea Enterprise mandate to improve business practices.
The Virginia class, then, will be one of the Navy's first platforms to touch on all seven aspects of "Sea Power 21." It will be able to carry out Sea Shield, Sea Strike, Sea Basing, and ForceNet requirements, while supporting Sea Enterprise, Sea Warrior, and Sea Trial initiatives in its development, construction, and testing.
The Ohio-Class SSGW
The 1994 Nuclear Posture Review set the stage for the SSGN program. It concluded that the Navy needs only 14 ballistic-missile submarines to carry out nuclear deterrent patrols. The four oldest Ohio-class SSBNs, the Ohio, Michigan (SSBN-727), Florida (SSBN-728), and Georgia (SSBN-729), still have 20-plus years of operational life remaining. Recognizing the military potential of these platforms, the Navy stood up the SSGN program office to maximize the nation's return on its investment in these venerable boats.
Once completed, SSGNs will be highly potent weapons in the war on terror. Each will carry up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles—the largest arsenal of conventional precision-strike missiles of any fleet asset. In addition, because of the SSGNs' stealth and near impunity to aircraft, they do not need antiair or self-defense missiles, allowing them to carry only strike weapons. Twenty-two of their missile tubes will be converted to hold Multiple All-Up-Round Canisters (MACs) that each will pack seven missiles. Each ship also will be able to accommodate up to 66 Navy SEALs or other Special Operation Forces for extended periods. Missile tubes one and two, the forward-most tubes, will be converted to huge lock-in/lock out chambers that can host either an Advanced SEAL Delivery System or a dry-deck shelter. With the Common Submarine Radio Room and the Ohio class's inherent quietness and stealth, SSGNs will be able to carry out a broad range of "Sea Power 21" missions.
Using the ships' current dual-crew system, each SSGN will be deployed for two-thirds of her remaining 20-plus years of operational life. That equates to an average of 2.6 SSGNs on deployment at any given time. With their non-provocative, stealthy characteristics, SSGNs will be able to penetrate denied waters and send back real-time intelligence without drawing attention. Further, should action be warranted, SSGNs will be able to clandestinely deploy a large number of Special Operations Forces and Tomahawk missiles.
What will make the SSGN unlike any other submarine in the world is her size. Submarines are the most cramped warships in the world, but with the removal of their Trident C-4 missiles, SSGNs will have 22 large payload tubes plus two lockout trunks. In addition to holding MACs, the tubes can be reconfigured to carry future payloads. Each tube holds about the same volume as a tractor trailer, so, effectively, the only limiting factor will be the engineers' imaginations.
SSGN will be not only a great war fighter, but also a great test bed. Currently, the Navy is investigating employing submarine-launched unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs), and other autonomous sensors that will significantly increase the ship's ability to collect and disseminate intelligence. Many of these new technologies will be tested aboard SSGNs because of their available space and multiple large ocean interfaces. In addition, the lessons learned from SSGN can be applied throughout the submarine force.
To control costs and maximize performance, the SSGN program started the conversions before finishing the ships' refuelings and provided more than 75% of the engineering drawings before starting conversion work. Traditionally, only a small percentage of drawings are available at the beginning of construction or conversion programs, but thanks to improved construction processes and computer-aided design, the SSGN program is producing them faster and with a higher degree of fidelity than ever before.
Significant Returns
The Navy and its industry partners are working hard to increase savings and enhance productivity. The Virginia and SSGN programs have involved all affected stakeholders in the design and construction process, yielding more cost-effective designs. This close and effective partnership will continue to grow and produce significant returns for the Navy and the nation.
In the global war on terrorism, the ability to covertly collect intelligence and then act quickly and decisively will win the day. With the Virginia class and the SSGNs, the Navy will have that ability and more across a wide range of missions in the world's oceans and littorals.
Rear Admiral Butler is Program Executive Officer (Submarines).