#Seawolf class submarine size comparison full

One complication in modular manufacturing: pipes and cables span multiple hull sections, some running nearly the length of the ship's interior. This in-factory, modular manufacturing is much more efficient than outfitting the ship after welding the sections together in the shipyard, as was done in the past. While still in the factory, these sections are outfitted with almost all of the items that go into that part of the submarine they are very crowded. A hull section consists of welded-together cylinders with diameters of their respective parts of the ship, up to about 40 feet. A hull section is a cross-sectional piece of the ship, approximately 25-40 feet long. The submarines are constructed from hull sections built in a factory at Quonset Point, RI. The silo is an internal lock-out chamber that will deploy up to eight combat swimmers and their equipment at one time. The DDS is an air-transportable device that piggy-backs on the submarine and can be used to store and launch a swimmer delivery vehicle and combat swimmers. SSN 23 will incorporate special-operations force capabilities, including a dry deck shelter (DDS) and a new, specially designed combat swimmer silo.

Seawolf's inherent stealth enables surreptitious insertion of combat swimmers into denied areas. With twice as many torpedo tubes and a 30% increase in weapons magazine size over the Los Angeles (SSN 688)-class submarines, Seawolf is capable of establishing and maintaining battlespace dominance. Acoustic hardware includes a truncated 24 ft diameter spherical receive array, a 15 ft diameter hemisphere active transmit array, a wide aperture array, a low frequency bow array, two towed arrays, and a mine detection and avoidance high frequency array. It includes the weapon launch equipment for the Mark 48 Advanced Capability Torpedo and the Tomahawk Missile. The combat control subsystem provides setting and control of weapons, over-the-horizon targeting, combat systems management, improved target motion analysis, piloting and navigation functions, and automatic contact correlation. It detects, classifies, localizes and tracks targets, platforms, and weapons by means of onboard active and passive sensors and with augmented target information from other platforms and external detection systems.

The AN/BSY-2 Submarine Combat System is designed to support SSN 21 in all mission areas. It is said that SEAWOLF is quieter at its tactical speed of 25 knots than a LOS ANGELES-class submarine at pierside. Overall, the Seawolf's propulsion system represents a 75-percent improvement over the I-688's - the Seawolf can operate 75 percent faster before being detected. Tactical speed is the speed at which a submarine is still quiet enough to remain undetected while tracking enemy submarines effectively. The Seawolf's quieter propulsion system will also enable it to have twice the tactical speed as the I-688.

#Seawolf class submarine size comparison full

The Seawolf's propulsion system makes it ten times more quiet over its full range of operating speeds than the Improved-688 class and 70 times more quiet than the initial generation of Los Angeles 688-class submarines.

Much much of the design effort was focused on noise reduction, and it is expected that the fully coated boat will restore the level of acoustic advantage which the US Navy enjoyed for the last three decades. The Seawolf has the highest tactical speed of any US submarine. It incorporates the latest in quieting technology to keep pace with the threat then posed by an aggressive Soviet Union. It sports an eight-tube, double-deck torpedo room to simultaneously engage multiple threats. The Seawolf features a strengthened sail, designed to permit operations under the polar ice cap for taking the fight to the Soviets in their own front yard. These platforms are capable of integrating into a battle group's infrastructure, or shifting rapidly into a land-battle support role.

Incorporation of sophisticated electronics produces enhanced indications and warning, surveillance, and communications capabilities. In addition to their capabilities in countering enemy submarines and surface shipping, Seawolf submarines are suited for battlespace-preparation roles. The Soviet submarines are one of the most survivable elements of their intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal. The primary mission of the Seawolf was to destroy Soviet ballistic missile submariness before they could attack American targets. Seawolf-class submarines were designed to operate autonomously against the world's most capable submarine and surface threats.