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I had the good fortune to spend a couple of hours aboard the U.S.S. New Hampshire, SSN-778, our latest Virginia class fast attack submarine. She was at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Center for weapons systems tests and the local chapter of the Naval Submarine League, Gil Shaddock to be specific, made arrangements for our group to visit the boat.
Having been in the Submarine Service in the 1960s I could not pass up the opportunity so I drove 3 hours from the west coast of Florida to Cape Canaveral. It was well worth the trip but I guess you have to be a submarine veteran to think it was.
As one would expect I was struck by the changes between the boats I rode in the '60s and the N. H. Every where you looked there were structural members devoted to sound isolation. There is only one internal hatch on board between AMR1 and the reactor compartment. There is not a single paper graph recorder on board, everything is LCD displays. There is no longer any Loran C receivers, only GPS. The galley is twice as large as what our Ops compartment used to be but crews mess was about the same. The sailors were very professional but all plan on leaving the NAV after 6-8 years, no lifers. The Control Center is now on the second level. The sonar shack was done away with, it is now part of the control center. The sonar displays are on the port side area that used to be the Ballast Control panel, whose displays are now located over the dive station and consists of a number of LCD touch screen displays.
We were not allowed go aft of the reactor compartment which was disappointing for me as I used to spend a lot of time in Maneuvering, oh well.
Big hatches topside to make loading stores much easier. A lockout hatch for SEALs. Larger torpedo tubes to support not only ADCAAP but also Tomahawks plus a VLS up front.
Having been in the Submarine Service in the 1960s I could not pass up the opportunity so I drove 3 hours from the west coast of Florida to Cape Canaveral. It was well worth the trip but I guess you have to be a submarine veteran to think it was.
As one would expect I was struck by the changes between the boats I rode in the '60s and the N. H. Every where you looked there were structural members devoted to sound isolation. There is only one internal hatch on board between AMR1 and the reactor compartment. There is not a single paper graph recorder on board, everything is LCD displays. There is no longer any Loran C receivers, only GPS. The galley is twice as large as what our Ops compartment used to be but crews mess was about the same. The sailors were very professional but all plan on leaving the NAV after 6-8 years, no lifers. The Control Center is now on the second level. The sonar shack was done away with, it is now part of the control center. The sonar displays are on the port side area that used to be the Ballast Control panel, whose displays are now located over the dive station and consists of a number of LCD touch screen displays.
We were not allowed go aft of the reactor compartment which was disappointing for me as I used to spend a lot of time in Maneuvering, oh well.
Big hatches topside to make loading stores much easier. A lockout hatch for SEALs. Larger torpedo tubes to support not only ADCAAP but also Tomahawks plus a VLS up front.