Texas Goes To Sea
No, not the state, the latest US Navy vessel to bear the name of the state. The Texas is the latest US fast attack submarine, the second in the Virginia class. It is purpose-built to handle covert operations as well as the more traditional roles of the fast attack boats.
The Texas, which will officially earn a "USS" designator in a commissioning ceremony in two weeks, weighs 7,800 tons, measures 377 feet long and can remain submerged on covert surveillance up to three months. It travels faster than 25 knots underwater and dives farther than 800 feet.
"It's much more effective than any ship I've been on before," said Capt. John Litherland, who has been on more than 50. "It's not the fastest, but the difference is that it's quiet even at its top speed."
Perhaps the biggest improvement is the ability to travel with a small special forces submarine, nine commandos and their gear. Previous subs would have carried only three Navy SEALS.
That kind of space is premium on a vessel designed to hide and spend most of its life underwater. Its maximum time submerged is limited only by the amount of food it can carry, because the boat generates its own power and oxygen.
Sailors sleep twelve to a room, on 6 1/2-foot beds with about 3 feet of top-to-bottom sleeping space, the 4-inch deep compartment under it the only place to stow belongings.
That's why they spent four weeks in basic training learning how to fold, crew members joke. And they've grown to carry less stuff, after training to spend up to six months at a time in the middle of the ocean.
More than 130 sailors will staff the sub when it begins serving missions, which after further trials might not be until 2008.
The boat carries sea-to-shore Tomahawk missiles, advanced capability Mark 48 torpedoes and mobile land mines. But one of its most critical missions is covert intelligence and surveillance.
Here's a link to a website that tells of the last ship to bear the name, the battleship USS Texas (BB-35). Still afloat as a museum, it served in both World War One and World War Two. (Wikipedia says the new Texas is the third vessel to bear the name, not the fourth.)
By Guy, Sunday, 27 August , 2006 @ 12:43 pm
I believe that Wikipedia is wrong. There wa a total of four USS Texas’. There were two Battleship Texas’. One that served somewhere around the Spanish American War. It was actually America’s first BB. It was commisioned just before the USS Maine, then BB35. There was also, a USS Texas that was a nuclear powered cruiser (CGN39) that served in the 70s as well. Then the new one…that makes four.
By Guy, Sunday, 27 August , 2006 @ 12:45 pm
Just reviewed my last post. Good grief, what grammar and sentence construction. Anyway, the facts are correct.
By Gaius, Sunday, 27 August , 2006 @ 12:46 pm
Happens to everyone. I do it all the time.