Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship

The final evolution of the Los Angeles-class boats was the version known as the Improved Los Angeles (688I). This version of the basic design would be fitted (in addition to the VLS system from the Flight II boats) with the new BSY-1 combat system. This system, which ties all of the boat's weapons and sensors together, was designed to overcome the problems associated with track and target 'hand-off' between the sensor and fire control operators. In addition, the 688I was modified to support under-ice operations. This included strengthening the fairwater so that it could be used as a penetration aid through Arctic ice, as well as moving the forward dive planes from the fairwater to the hull, near the bow. Finally, the basic boat design was enhanced with a number of quieting improvements. It has been openly stated that the 688Is are almost ten times quieter than the basic Flight I boats.

All in all, the 688I is the finest SSN roaming the oceans today. While it does have shortcomings, diving depth and habitability being most notable, it still has the best single mix of mobility, weapons, and sensors ever fitted to a submarine. And while the next generation of SSNs will make up for the shortcomings of the Los Angeles class, it will be at an enormous price. In any case, the U.S. Navy had better get used to them-they have ordered a total of sixty- two boats in the class. And with the retirement of the entire Permit class, as well as planned early decommissioning of most of the Sturgeons, it is entirely likely that the year 2000 will see the U.S. Navy operating fifty to sixty Los Angeles-class boats and probably just two or three Seawolfs.

^{The executive officer of USS Miami, Lieutenant Commander Mark Wooten, USN. OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTO}

^{The commanding officer of USS Miami (SSN-755), Commander Houston K. Jones, USN. OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTO}

USS Miami: Our Guided Tour Begins

For our guided tour of a 688I, we will profile the USS Miami (SSN-755), the third U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name. The previous Miamis included a double-ended gunboat that fought during the Civil War, and a Cleveland-class light cruiser during World War II. The cruiser Miami (CL- 89) earned six battle stars during her service in the Pacific during World War II, and fought in such actions as the Marianas, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The current Miami was built at the Electric Boat Division yard of General Dynamics at Groton. She was launched November 12, 1988, and was commissioned June 30, 1990. She is assigned to SUBDEVRON 12 based at New London. She is some 362 feet long and 33 feet in diameter and has a crew of 13 officers and 120 enlisted men.

^{USS Miami, external layout top view. JACK RYAN ENTERPRISES, LTD.}

^{The twelve hydraulically operated doors of the Miami's vertical launch system for Tomahawk cruise missiles. Note the pressure caps to protect the missiles. JOHN D. GRESHAM}

Her captain at the time of this writing is Commander Houston K. Jones, USN. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (class of 1974), and this is his first afloat command. He is generally considered to be one of the top U.S. skippers in the sub force today, not only by his fellow officers but by the captains of the boats of the Royal Navy and other NATO nations that he has mixed it up with during various exercises. His executive officer is Lieutenant Commander Mark Wootten, USN. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (class of 1978), and is on the track to obtain a submarine command himself.

Miami is fortunate in that she is the first of the 688Is to be fitted with a complete BSY-1 combat system and all the other goodies planned for the class. The other boats of the group, starting with the USS San Juan (SSN-751), have less capable preproduction versions of the system and thus will have to await refits to move up to the full 688I standard. In addition, Miami is reported to have done 37 knots out on trials with her high-output reactor core. She is a fast, smart-looking boat with an excellent record thus far on exercises and patrols. Let's go aboard and take a look for ourselves.

Hull/Fittings

As you walk across the gangplank onto the boat the first thing that strikes you is the straight and level nature of the hull. Several things account for this. First and foremost is the fact that for most of its length, the Los Angeles-class boat is a perfect 33-foot-diameter tube of steel. This is a function of her high speed requirement. Long, narrow hulls have less drag than the teardrop-shaped hulls that can be seen on earlier U.S. or British boats. And while this does make for a faster boat, it has some adverse effects on handling during operations. In addition, it is easy to tell that Miami is equipped with the Mk 32 VLS system, since it is sitting level in the water. The earlier Flight I boats, because they are not equipped with the VLS, always have a pronounced 'nose up' attitude when they ride on the surface.

^{The coating of decoupling tiles on the hull of the USS Groton (SSN- 694). The individual tiles are glued to the hull to form a carpet of rubber around it. Note the safety track on the TB- 16 shroud, which crew members on deck hook onto. JOHN D. GRESHAM}

Another thing that you immediately notice is the long shroud running down the starboard side of the hull. This is the housing for the various parts of the TB-16 passive towed array sonar. Along the shroud runs a track that allows personnel on deck to secure themselves to the hull, if surface operations are required. As you step onto the hull, you immediately notice that it seems to be made up of a series of tiles or bricks. And when you step on them, they seem to 'give,' much like the padding under a carpet. This is the anechoic/decoupling coating designed to defeat active sonars as well as reduce the noise emitted by the boat's internal machinery. It covers the entire hull except for the hatches, control surfaces, and sonar dome/windows.

Forward toward the bow are the twelve hatches for the VLS missile launch tubes. The outer doors or caps for the four torpedo tubes are located, two to a side, below the waterline. Along the top of the casing, aligned along the center axis of the boat, are three hatches. The one just forward of the fairwater is the weapons loading hatch. Here, using a special set of loading gear, the various weapons fired from the torpedo room are loaded. Two more hatches aft of the fairwater are set aside for the more mundane job of personnel access. Both are equipped to act as airlocks in the event that a rescue submarine needs to lock on, or as a way for swimmers to leave the boat. The aft hatch leads into the machinery spaces aft of the reactor compartment. Entry into this area is strictly controlled. The other hatch, just aft of the fairwater, is the main entry point in the forward part of the boat.

The hull is composed of a series of rings or barrel sections, welded together at the building yard. The 33- foot-diameter hull is itself approximately 3 inches thick and composed of HY-80 high-tensile steel. At each end of the 360-foot-long hull is a hemispheric end cap, which is welded onto the cylinder formed by the barrel sections. The main ballast tanks are at the forward and aft ends of the hull, with the sonar dome mounted forward and the propulsion section and its control surfaces mounted aft. In addition, smaller variable ballast tanks, which are used to maintain the trim of the boat, are located inside the hull.

^{Los Angeles-class submarine on the surface. ELECTRIC BOAT DIV., GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP.}

One final thing that comes to the viewer's eye is the detail work done by the designers to minimize any type of flow noise from the hull. All of the fittings, called capstans, used to secure the boat to the pier forward of the fairwater are mounted along the centerline, so that they are already in disturbed water and will not cause any other