SSN Seawolf Class is one of the strongest and quietest nuclear submarines in the world. The deep diving noise is only 95 decibels, which is lower than the noise in the marine environment.
It was designed for hunting Typhoon-class nuclear submarines. In addition, its entire ship can be equipped with 50 torpedoes, and its combat power can be as strong as a whole fleet.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in an arms race that lasted for half a century. this competition also significantly promoted the progress of human science and technology.
At that time, The rapid development of human science and technology, with the vast financial support of the United States and the Soviet Union, also helped many industrial scientists. Today, many advanced pieces of equipment from the Cold War are still in service and still at a world-class level.
At that time, the Soviet Union was most proud of its missile technology. The land-based ICBMs it manufactured were small in size, long in range, and large in warheads, which caused a headache for the United States.
In order to deal with the Soviet Union, the United States took a different approach and began to study “stealth technology.” From the sky to the bottom of the sea, the United States has brought “stealth” technology to the extreme.
Against this development background, the Seawolf-class attack nuclear submarine was born. It is also known as one of the world’s largest attack submarines.
In the United States’ strategic plan, the quietest nuclear submarine is to hunt and kill the enemy country’s strategic nuclear submarine and bear the nation’s grand ambition to dominate the ocean. Then, how powerful is the Seawolf-class nuclear submarine?
The United States and the Soviet Union were the first to possess nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, an average of hundreds of nuclear bombs could be produced every year.
According to rough calculations, in the 1970s alone, the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union were enough to destroy the earth several times. There are also many ways of launching.
The most common one is the deployment of bombs by aircraft, but it is easy to be detected. The most threatening one is the “submarine drop.” The missile is carried by submarines and sails in the ocean’s depths. Any country can. It isn’t easy to detect its position. Only such a nuclear strike can exert the most excellent effect and minimize its damage.
The Seawolf-class nuclear submarine can well undertake this kind of strike task. Military scientists believe that: cruising The strategic nuclear submarine in the ocean is the “Sword of Damocles” on the human head.
SSN Seawolf Class design & combat system
The Seawolf class has a displacement of 9,000 tons, has eight torpedo tubes, and can load 50 bombs. It is almost an integrated submarine torpedo library. To counter high-performance surface ships and fast, deep-diving submarines, the Gould mk48 ADCAP torpedoes were developed.
The torpedo contains a warhead that weighs 267 kilograms. It can function with or without the need for wire guidance, employing both active and passive homing mechanisms. The operational range is 50 km, and the passive range is 38 km (passive).
The power the Seawolf-class S6W nuclear reactor provides is 52,000 horsepower, and the voyage process is terrifyingly quiet.
It is equipped with more than 20 noise reduction devices, and the interior is also equipped with rubber sound insulation tiles. The shape design of the hull can also reduce the water flow very well. Cavitation, such a noise reduction technology, can lead the major countries for decades now which is a black technology.
as for the Countermeasures The Northrop Grumman WLY-1 torpedo decoy system and the GTE WLQ-4(V), 1 electronic countermeasure (ECM) system are both in the countermeasures’ arsenal.
The BQQ 5D sonar system is installed in the submarine. It has active and passive arrays on the front and wide aperture arrays mounted on the flanks.
Additionally installed are TB-16 surveillance and TB-29 tactical towed arrays. The TB-29A thin-line will soon replace these arrays towed arrays that Lockheed Martin is building. For close-range detection, BQS 24 active sonar is also installed.
Under the acoustic-rapid commercial-off-the-shelf insertion (A-RCI) program, the Seawolf subs were modernized by installing the Lockheed Martin AN/BQQ-10(V4) sonar processing system, Along with BPS 16 radar, operating at I band is fitted for navigation.
The Seawolf is powered by a GE PWR S6W reactor system, two turbines rated at 52,000hp (38.8MW), a pumpjet propulsor, a single shaft, and one extra propulsion submerged motor.
