The Virginia Class submarines are the most technology advanced boats in the world. They are designed to be a multimission nuclear powered attack platform. A typical mission could be as a deep ocean anti-submarine hunter/killer, or a littoral, (shallow water), operator. The boat can stay submerged, just below the surface of a coastline, and will not move more than 3 inches in any direction thanks to its massive sonar arrays and sensors. It doesn't matter about the weather or currents or tide. It will stay submerged and rock steady. The crew is comprised of 15 officers and 117 enlisted men. Virginia Class boats are 377ft long with a submerged displacement of 7300tns.
To avoid detection by other submarines sonar, our submarines are covered with sound-absorbing tiles called anechoic coatings. These perforated rubber tiles are typically about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) thick. All structures bolted to the deck are completely isolated and it has a new type propulsion system which keeps a low acoustic signature. The level of noise coming from the boat is said to be the equivalent to the Seawolf Class. The Seawolf class was designed to take the place of the Los Angeles class boats but it's high cost per unit made this type restricted to 3 units.
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Each Virginia class is built using a modular design. The hull is formed and then units of prefabricated structures are placed inside. This is the same type of construction that the Seawolf class used but advancements in technology have made the unit cost, approximately 3 billion dollars per boat, much more effective. with each new boat, the unit cost is coming down, and as technology advances, the latest equipment is being installed. With the modular design each boat can in effect be tailored for a different mission spec.
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Propulsion is derived from an S9G (Submarine, 9th generation, General Electric) pressurized water reactor. By comparison, I taught on the S1W (Submarine, 1st generation, Westinghouse) in the early 70's. These newest reactors are designed to last the life of the boat, meaning no core changes for depleted uranium. Each boat has a service life of 40 years.The propulsion is driven through two turbine engines with one shaft and a United Defense pump jet propulsor, providing 29.84MW. The speed is over 25kt dived. Propeller design is a closely guarded secret by the Navy. The ultimate goal of our submarines in the near future is to go all electric, including propulsion, thus making the boats almost invisible to the enemy.
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Instead of periscopes, the subs have a pair of extendable “photonics masts” outside the pressure hull. Each contains several high-resolution cameras with light-intensification and infrared sensors, an infrared laser rangefinder, and an integrated Electronic Support Measures (ESM) array. Signals from the masts’ sensors are transmitted through fiber optic data lines through signal processors to the control center. The subs also make use of pump-jet propulsors for quieter operations.
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Virginia's weapon systems include 12 vertical launch tubes in the bow and four 533mm, 21 inch, torpedo tubes. The vertical tubes launch up to 16 Tomahawk missiles. The boat can carry 26 mk48 ADCAP mod 6 heavy torpedoes along with harpoon anti-ship/submarine missiles. the boat can, if need be, launch mk60 Captor mines.
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The boat is steered with nothing more than a joystick.