Submarine dubbed 'F-22 fighter under the sea' of America

The Seawolf class had low noise and great power, but the high cost caused the number of ships built to be significantly reduced compared to the plan.

The Seawolf-class submarine USS Jimmy Carter

In the late 1980s, the US Navy faced an underwater crisis. The Soviet Union had acquired the system.9-axis milling machineJapanese Toshiba Corporation, through a Norwegian company, helpedmake better propellers for submarines. As a result, tThe Soviet Project 941 "Schuka-B" submarine had a much lower noise level than previous generations, and the diving ability was three times deeper than the then-advanced US Los Angeles class., according toNational Interest.

To deal with the threat of the Schuka-B class, the US began developing the Seawolf-class nuclear attack submarine, equipped with a 5cm thick HY-100 steel alloy hull, to increase the ability to withstand pressure at great depths, allowing them to dive up to 600 m, three times deeper than the Los Angeles class and on par with the Soviet Union's Project 941.

Seawolf-class submarines have extremely low noise levels. Photo: USNI.

The Seawolf class is 107.6 m long and 12 m wide, with a displacement of 12,158 tons. Each submarine is equipped with a Westinghouse S6W nuclear reactor, generating steam for two turbine clusters with a maximum capacity of 52,000 horsepower. This is the first class of American submarine to use a pump-jet propulsion system, a feature later applied on the advanced Virginia class. The Seawolf class submarine has a maximum speed of 65 km/h, and the ability to maintain silence at speeds of up to 37 km/h.

The Seawolf-class's primary sensor is the BQQ-5D sonar system, which includes a 7.3-meter spherical active/passive sonar array at the bow, along with a series of wide-aperture sonar arrays on both sides of the hull. The stern is equipped with a TB-29A towed sonar system, along with a BQS-24 reconnaissance array to detect nearby objects such as mines.

With the main role of hunting Soviet submarines, Seawolf submarines are equipped with up to 8 torpedo tubes, double the number of previous generations. A Seawolf can carry 50 ammunition of various types, including Mark 48 heavyweight torpedoes, UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles and mines.

The US Navy claims the Seawolf class is 10 times quieter than the Improved Los Angeles class, or 70 times quieter than the original Los Angeles. However, the price to pay for great power is very high construction cost.

The Seawolf program had a total cost of 33 billion USD for 12 submarines, a figure too high for the US government, especially when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Seawolf project was reduced to only three ships with a total cost of 7.3 billion USD.

The cost overruns and reduction in the number of ships have led to the Seawolf being dubbed the "F-22 fighter under the sea", as they have the same fate as the modern F-22 stealth fighter but the cost is so high that the production quantity is significantly limited.

High costs forced the US to build only three Seawolf-class ships. Photo: Wikipedia.

The Seawolf class is considered the best submarine in the world, but it only really came into its own during the Cold War, when the US was willing to spend a lot of money to deal with the threat from the Soviet Union. The geopolitical changes after 1991 made the US Navy focus on the Virginia class, which had inferior features but a much lower price.

Although only three were built, the Seawolf class remains an important part of the US submarine fleet, with features that the current Virginia class cannot match, military expert Kyle Mizokami commented.

According to VNE