Halibut Hangar

Originally Published on June 18, 2008; Updated and Republished on October 23, 2008:

On June 21, 2008 the fifth Virginia-class submarine, USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) will be christened at the General Dynamic, Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut.

Director of Naval Reactors, Admiral Kirkland Donald will speak accompanied by the submarine's sponsor, Cheryl McGuinness (widow of Thomas McGuinness, co-pilot on American Airlines Flight 11).

Commissioning is expected to occur October 25, 2008 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (Wikimapia Aerial View) in Kittery, Maine, across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (see Commissioning - New Hampshire (SSN-778))

Web:

• UPDATED 10/23/2008 NavSource Online, Navy Commissions Submarine New Hampshire [on Saturday October 25, 2008 @ 10 am - Navy Webcast]
• UPDATED 06/21/2008NavSource Online, New Hampshire (SSN-778)

• UPDATED 06/20/2008 Christening of New Hampshire (SSN-778) Webcast General Dynamics, Electric Boat Division will webcast the ceremonies beginning 10:30 eastern time. It will be available for on-demand replay, too.

  UPDATED 06/21/2008 Every speaker is clearly sensitized to the need for very significant cost reductions in the Virginia-class submarine program—advanced technology is useless if you cannot afford¹ it or recoup the costs²!

  The price is currently hovering around $2.5-2.3 billion per submarine. A "Design for Affordability Program" (DFAP) is expected to reduce the price further when amortized over all submarine production blocks.

  Unfortunately, DFAP, is starting from a $2.5+ billion baseline, $500+ million over the promised $2 billion per submarine. The DFAP is eliminating a gigantic cost over-run not guaranteeing a sustainable production of the Virginia-class submarine.

  Perhaps Admiral Kirkland Donald summarized it best:

  "...crew, thanks for the hard work there's more to follow."

• Navy Announces Christening of Submarine New Hampshire

-----notes-----

1. For example every submarine driver would prefer a titanium or composite hull because each provide an increased operational envelop and very little or no magnetic cross-section—neither material are yet sustainably affordable for large scale submarine production (only boutique or exotic craft use them).

2. For example, a new SSBN (ballistic missile submarine) might incur additional costs perfecting air independent hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) technology for submarine propulsion.

While the total apparent cost for each new SSBN submarine would be enormous its effective cost is quite small after amortizing the benefits of commercialized HFC technology over usage in, say, vehicle propulsion.

Originally Published June 04, 2008; Updated and Republished July 30, 2008; Updated and Republished October 15, 2008:

Miss Virginia 2007, Hannah Kiefer, visits America's newest fast attack submarine, USS Virginia, SSN 774. In addition to having our young women visit our newest submarine, our Navy needs to ensure they can stay if they so choose. Hannah, instead of just calling for Miss Virginia 2008 to visit our newest submarine, why not call on the United States Navy to begin assigning our young women to our nation's newest submarine?

Hannah Kiefer, USS Virginia SSN 774

Challenge our young women to crew our submarines. Challenge them to design submarines with: lower costs (USS Virginia costs $2.5 billion, plus!); more advanced technology; improved and advanced materials—the sail on which you and the lieutenant stand is so yesterday (it represents approximately 8-9% of the submarine's total hydrodynamic drag¹)—a platypus like appendage.

Web:

• UPDATED 10/15/2008 UPI, Some urge broader women's role in military.

  "These women aren't asking for special privileges," said Manning, a Navy veteran. "We think women and men should be allowed to do any job they are physically qualified to do."

• UPDATED 07/30/2008 Remembering When Women Became Waves. The video gives a short history of women in the Navy ending with a statement implying that women are now fully integrated into the Navy—not quite we still need them to command and crew our nuclear submarines. (also, women cannot be Navy Seals, notwithstanding their ability to meet all the requirements)

• UPDATED 06/18/2008 Winter: Fewer Subs For Now. Speaking at the United States Naval War College Secretary of Navy, Donald C. Winter said he does not support increasing the Virginia-class submarine production rate (from one to two per year).

  ”There is no silver-bullet solution to this financial problem,...We must figure out how to build a more cost-effective fleet and build a fleet that is less costly to operate.”--Donald C. Winter--

• Miss Virginia Visits State's Namesake Submarine
• Virginia Class Submarine - Defense Authorization FY09

-----notes-----

1. Increased hydrodynamic drag, all other things being equal, means more propulsion, which requires a larger (noisy and heavy) or more efficient propulsor and/or propulsion plant.

The sail also has other undesirable attributes for the modern submarine. For example added weight, limited maneuverability, larger energy (sonar, radar, magnetic) cross sections, and high center of gravity (instability).

Some of these undesirable attributes are mitigated by manufacturing modern submarine sails from new composite plastics.