Subject: Navy Subs - No
Periscope - No External propeller!
The technology is amazing. The people who lived a
couple of hundred years ago could have lived an entire lifetime and
basically could have seen very few changes. Just
think how fast the world is changing
now.
Step
Aboard The Navy's $2.4 Billion "Virginia"
Class Nuclear Submarine
The
first Virginia slipped beneath the waves just eight years ago and only nine
vessels have been completed.
They
take more than five years to build and run about $2.4 billion apiece.
Here,
we look at the Virginia class of submarines from stern to bow, finding out
what makes these ships unique.
We'll
start in the engine room, move our way over the reactor, through the
barracks to the command center and down into the torpedo room.
The
Virginia-class submarine is a new breed of high-tech post-Cold War nuclear
subs
The submarines are nearly 400 feet long and
have been in service since 2003
The ships were designed to function well in
both deep sea and low-depth waters
So far, nine have entered service - here is
Cheryl McGuiness, the widow of one of the pilots killed on 9/11,
christening the USS New Hampshire
Here are the USS Virginia's engines, which
powers a pump-jet propulsor rather than a conventional propeller
This design cuts back on corrosive damage and
also makes the ship stealthier
The engine room, near the sub's stern, is the
place where power from the SG9 nuclear reactor core drives the ship to
nearly 32 mph when it's submerged
This hallway - extending from the engine room,
over the reactor and through the living habitat in the center of the ship -
is dark so that sailors can sleep
The ship has an airlock chamber with room for
9 SEALs
The SEALs can exit the sub while its
underwater by passing through this airlock
This lock-out chamber is in the center of the
ship
Submariners eat well - the quality of the food
is designed to offset the stress and burden of living underwater for months
at a time
As one sailor said, "It's like having
comfort food 24-hours a day
Going further toward the bow of the sub, the
command center is directly beneath the main sail of the sub and where the
navigators do their work
The command center on the Virginia subs are
much more spacious compared previous submarines
The command center doesn't have to be directly
under the deck of the ship in the Virginia-class subs because there isn't a
periscope.
The monitor the Commander is looking at is
this is the sub's "periscope" - a state-of-the-art photonics
system, which enables real time imaging that more than one person can see
at a time
The Virginia eliminates the traditional
helmsman, planesman, chief of the watch and diving officer by combining
them into two stations manned by two officers
The subs are equipped with a spherical sonar
array that scans a full 360-degrees
The Virginia subs carry a full crew of 134
sailors
Despite computer navigation systems all routes
are plotted manually as well
Down below the command center is the torpedo
room, where it is possible to set up temporary bunks for special operations
team
The ships carry up to 12 vertical launch
tomahawk missiles and 38 torpedoes
Here an officer on the USS Texas fires water
through the torpedo tubes as part of a test
The subs were designed to host the defunct
Advanced SEAL Delivery system, a midget submarine that transported the Navy
SEALs from the sub to their mission
The only thing in front of the torpedo room is
the bow of the submarine, which contains sonar equipment and shielding
designed to make the sub stealthier
Even as they are being built, new improvements
and upgrades are being added into the design of the submarines
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skegley.blogspot.com
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