Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship

and/or dry-dock shelter.

With all these extra bodies on board, one begins to ask the next question: has submarine habitability improved in the past ten years? Unfortunately, advances in technology notwithstanding, the answer is likely to be no. Submarines have always been so crammed with equipment that it appears at times as if the designers forgot to include the sailors! Fortunately, numerous space-saving features have been included in the Virginia class. The current manning figures appear to be in the same neighborhood as the Los Angeles and Seawolf classes-around 120 enlisted and chiefs, along with 14 officers. With the significantly smaller size of the Virginias, this large complement could pose a problem. However, the manning numbers may end up dropping significantly as a result of the use of the Navy's new 'Smart-Ship' technology.[17]

Already the Navy is planning on using this manpower-saving technology to reduce fifteen crew watchstanders from the control room of Virginia. This technology will allow the boat's advanced control system to be operated by a pilot, copilot, and relief pilot, thereby replacing the diving officer, chief of the watch, helmsman, planesman, and messenger of previous submarine classes. It is technologies such as these that will inevitably bring down the number of sailors to a more 'comfortable' level. Alas, as any submariner knows, as soon as they get more room in a sub, designers will add more gadgets, not more racks!

Well, now that we've taken a look at the Virginia, it's pretty apparent that a boat like this can be used for virtually any mission the Navy might require. Whether it's CVBG support in the Aegean, monitoring an embargo or communications in the Persian Gulf, delivering SOF units in Africa, or hunting enemy submarines and ships anywhere else, Virginia is one class of submarine that should be able to do it all! Now America just needs to build them, which may be the biggest challenge of all.

The British A-Class (Astute) Boats

While the United States Navy was going through its post-Cold War 'shrinking pains,' what was happening to the Royal Navy (RN) of our closest military ally, the United Kingdom? Well, you can rest assured that the RN submarine force was going through some equally painful experiences of its own! Like the United States, the British were in the middle of planning for the future of the Cold War when the Soviet Union threw in the towel at the end of 1991. You would have thought that when the Berlin Wall fell, it landed right on top of the Admiralty in London. As late as 1987, the British had been discussing a new class of attack boat to begin replacing the Swiftsure-class (S- 126) SSNs. In 1987, Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering (VSEL), LTD, won a contract to begin designing a new 'W' class, also known as SSN-20, and was to start construction in the mid-1990s. This new submarine was similar in design and concept to the American Seawolf, large and optimized for blue- water/open-ocean operations.

The 1990s were to have been one of the busiest and most aggressive decades for British submarine development. However, while design work on the Swiftsure's replacement continued at VSEL, the RN was also in the midst of replacing its Resolution-class (S-22) ballistic missile submarines with a vaunted new group of SSBNs known as the Vanguard (S-28) class. While these truly awesome boats were in production, readying for their commissioning, the Upholder-class (S- 40) SSKs were also scheduled to come into service during what would turn out to be one of the worst possible times imaginable. This class, consisting of Upholder (S-40), Unseen (S-41), Ursula (S-42), and Unicorn (S-43), were commissioned into service between 1990 and 1993, but by 1992 the decision was made to decommission all four of the brand-new SSKs as a cost-cutting measure.

The Upholder boats were eventually leased to Canada, but 1992 was a particularly dark time for the Royal submarine fleet. Also in that year, the entire SSN-20/W-class project to replace the Swiftsure was canceled with VSEL. Within months, however, a seed of hope was planted when the RN and Ministry of Defense (MoD) realized (as did their counterparts in the United States) that cost and not advanced blue-water operational capabilities was going to be the driving factor for getting a new class of SSNs ordered. Once this fact became apparent, priority switched from a new class of submarines to an improved version of the already proven Trafalgar (S-107) class SSNs.

British submarine designers were asked to submit a plan for a less expensive generation of submarines than had originally been envisioned. This new submarine was to vary only minimally from the previous Trafalgar-class SSNs. The boats, which soon took on the name Batch 2 Trafalgar class or B2TC, began to look like a reality when a request for bids was issued to both VSEL and competitor GEC-MARCONI in July of 1994. GEC ended up winning this contract, which called for construction of three boats with the option for more as deemed necessary and affordable by the MoD.

Initial progress was not exactly rapid, as complex defense consolidation issues stalled efforts to finalize the contract. The first actual orders for the B2TC boats were placed in March of 1997. The PS2 billion contract called for three new boats, HMS Astute, Ambush, and Artful. Finally, the B2TCs had a real name-the 'A' or Astute class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. The current outlook for the Astute class is excellent, based on both the needs of the Royal Navy and the design expertise of the manufacturer. The keel of the Astute herself was officially laid down in January 2001. Thankfully, MoD support has continued unabated for Astute. In fact, it was announced in July 1998 that the Royal Navy would get two more Astutes, for a class total of five boats. Though these two most recent boats have yet to be named, you can bet that their futures will be full of adventure.

While the busy process of finding a suitable replacement for the Swiftsures was under way, an equally complex dance of consolidation was going on within the British defense and shipbuilding industries. In 1994, GEC- Marconi made an offer to buy VSEL, which had been working on the original W-class/Swiftsure replacement designs. The following year, British Aerospace also made an offer for VSEL, but in the end VSEL accepted the GEC-Marconi offer-though only after they had successfully raised the asking price several hundred million pounds! As you might imagine, this caused considerable consternation, as VSEL had been in direct competition against GEC-Marconi to build the new Astutes. These issues were finally resolved, however, and all was quiet on the submarine industrial front for several more years. This lasted until 1999, when it was announced that British Aerospace was merging with GEC-Marconi. This meant that British Aerospace now took over construction of the new Astutes. In doing so, and as a result of its merger with GEC-Marconi, British Aerospace officially changed its name to BAE Systems and continued with Astute's construction. Because of this, HMS Astute's prime contractor has been referred to as VSEL, GEC-Marconi, British Aerospace, and BAE Systems. The free market of the 'New World Order'-what a crazy world we live in!

Now let's walk down the gangplank and take a virtual look inside this new warship. The A-class boats will be based on a design concept similar to that of the Virginia class. That is to say, the Astutes will need to maintain the capability to fight in nearly every underwater environment, from the open ocean of the Atlantic to the littoral zones off the Persian Gulf, all while keeping costs down and weapons loads and capabilities up. From protection of the British homeland to far-off TLAM attacks, the missions of Astute require that she contain only the best electronics and weapons available.

One of the biggest differences between Trafalgar and Astute is the size of the boats' hulls. Astute will displace around 7,000 tons submerged and 6,390 tons surfaced compared with 5,208 tons and 4,740 tons for the Trafalgar-class SSNs. Much of this tonnage, along with Astute's longer length (318 feet/97 meters compared with 279 feet/85 meters of the T-class boats-an increase of more than 36 feet/10 meters!), can be attributed to the newer boat's larger weapons load-out. Where the Trafalgar-class boats carried a total of twenty-five weapons, the new warships will be able to hold thirty-six (at least that's the number officially being claimed). They will be fired by six torpedo tubes versus the five in the earlier class. Some consideration was given to providing the Astute-class SSNs with a VLS system, but in light of cost constraints, the new boats' warload was deemed sufficient.

Another key update included in Astute has been her reactor plant. Astute's power plant was originally developed for the Vanguard-class SSBN. Designated PWR 2, it will be built by Rolls-Royce and is rated at 15,000 shaft horsepower. However, the Astute version is significantly more advanced than the earlier variants, and some press reports speculate that the new power plant is capable of circling the globe literally scores of times without a single refueling. Reportedly there is a lifetime reactor core design (known as an 'H' core) that will give it twenty-