All three Seawolfs moving to Washington state

[SUBMAN1]

Heard on the radio on the way home that the final 2 Seawolf's are moving to Washington state and it was approved today. They both will be moving to Kitsap and the Jimmy Carter will stay in Bangor.

Finally! I can get a tour of a Seawolf sub since I was denied a tour of the Jimmy Carter for obvious reasons (though I have tried anyway!). Though it is still interesting to tour the Ohio class (done it several times now and have even seen a plug launch from a torp tube - only place you cannot go on the Ohio tours is the reactor room), a Seawolf is still something I have yet to see. Time to work the system and set up something for the near future!

-S

PS. This move tells me that the Navy is gearing up against the Chinese now.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

PS. This move tells me that the Navy is gearing up against the Chinese now.

Nah, it's to lull the Danish into a false sense of security

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Nah, it's to lull the Danish into a false sense of security

No those SWs are there since they are only things that can counter that Swedish Gotland that’s been playing war games with the Pacific Fleet.

[Torplexed]

I would love to plant myself somewhere on Hood Canal to get a picture of one going by. Knowing this area some self-important Evergreen grad will be out there on a inflatable Zodiac with a banner proclaiming "USS Auschwitz not welcome here."

[SmokinTep]

I've been on all 3 of them. They are awesome boats. Torpedo room has 8 tubes and 2 decks. She is as wide as a boomer, control room is on the middle level vice upper on a 688. She also is one fast quiet sub.

Friend of mine was a plankowner on the Seawolf and said during trials, they were out with other 688's and they couldn't find her.

Only place I couldn't go on the Carter was the "Spook" compartment. Need Top Secret to get in there.

[Terrax]

Wow, that must have been incredible. Lucky you.

[sonar732]

I forsee the other two Seawolves participating in exercises with the Collins and Gotland class boats as a "mono-el-mono" to see how well the SW's would do in a Taiwan conflict situation. This will tell the Navy just how well we'll do against the pesky Chinese in the Straights.

[SmokinTep]

The Seawolf and Conneticutt will be parts boats for the Carter. Since it was to be a muti boat class, the contractors bid to make parts, then lost big time when the class was eliminated to just 3. Sad to say, parts are hard to come by. They were robbing parts off of the Carter while she was being built just to keep the othet 2 operational.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

I would love to plant myself somewhere on Hood Canal to get a picture of one going by. Knowing this area some self-important Evergreen grad will be out there on a inflatable Zodiac with a banner proclaiming "USS Auschwitz not welcome here."

And taking deck guns off boats was called progress....

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

I would love to plant myself somewhere on Hood Canal to get a picture of one going by. Knowing this area some self-important Evergreen grad will be out there on a inflatable Zodiac with a banner proclaiming "USS Auschwitz not welcome here."

You should put up an even bigger sign saying "Screw Greenpeace, Ping the whales!"

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by SmokinTep

The Seawolf and Conneticutt will be parts boats for the Carter. Since it was to be a muti boat class, the contractors bid to make parts, then lost big time when the class was eliminated to just 3. Sad to say, parts are hard to come by. They were robbing parts off of the Carter while she was being built just to keep the othet 2 operational.

I have a hard time beleiving that the Navy would take its most capable boats that it already paid for, and are oprational, and turn them into a parts basket. When the Jimmy Carter was made, they had to have made some spares on equipment that is problem prone.

-S

[SmokinTep]

Jimmy Carter will be the one they want to keep going. There was a rumor that they were going to mothball the other two........

[JSLTIGER]

You must be joking...there is no way that the US Navy is going to mothball its two best submarines after only 7 years of service! Especially not after paying 4 billion for the pair!

[Bort]

This move tells me that the Navy is gearing up against the Chinese now.

Possibly, but from what I've heard it's to save on logistics and support by having all three in one place. It has been planned for a while to base the Carter in Bangor, where the Parche, which it replaced was based. I think the Navy just decided to throw in the other two for savings.

[Bort]

Jimmy Carter will be the one they want to keep going. There was a rumor that they were going to mothball the other two........

The Navy has done some dumb things lately, like try to get rid of the Kennedy (which they may still end up doing), but I don't think there is any way they would do something quite that stupid. The Seawolves each cost a fortune and you can be sure the navy will ride them into the ground before they're retired.