Saluting the Officers and Crew of the USS New Jersey
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Dear Officers and Crew of the USS New Jersey (SSN 796),
It is a pleasure to extend my warmest congratulations on the commissioning of the USS New Jersey (SSN 796) and its initiation as a member of the United States Navy Submarine Force.
The USS New Jersey is the third U.S. Navy ship to carry the Garden State’s name as an ambassador of our great state and nation. Just as the first USS New Jersey cruised around the world as part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, and the Battleship New Jersey distinguished itself as the most decorated battleship in the history of the U.S. Navy with nearly 50 years of service, so too will the newest USS New Jersey provide “Firepower for Freedom.”
As a Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine, the USS New Jersey is capable of a range of missions to help protect America at sea. It will serve to preserve peace and prosperity and to maintain freedom of the seas, and it will be prepared to defend our country if necessary.
I know that as the officers and crew of the USS New Jersey, you will only add to the legacy of service that the USS New Jersey inherits, and I am full of gratitude for your courage, commitment, and honor. I look forward to watching you represent our great state around the globe, and I thank you for your deep patriotism and dedication to duty.
Sincerely,
Cory A. Booker United States Senator
September 14, 2024
Commander Steven Halle and Crew
USS New Jersey
U.S. Department of the Navy 1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20350-1000
Dear Commander Halle, Crew of the USS New Jersey, Members of USS New Jersey Commissioning Committee, Navy sailors past and present, friends and supporters of the U.S. Navy:
As the Dean of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation and most senior member of the United States House of Representatives, I am thrilled to see this heralded occasion unfold in my Congressional District in Middletown Township, N.J., when the namesake of our great state is once again officially adorned in the ranks of the U.S. Naval Vessel Registry as a commissioned ship.
It has been a rare and distinct honor for me to have represented three Navy installations in my district Naval Weapons Station Earle, Naval Air Warfare Center Trenton and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, now part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. But today is a special, historic day.
The State of New Jersey’s storied history with the U.S. Navy goes back to the beginnings of the nation itself when on October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Navy, with the fleet of over two dozen ships sailing off the Jersey Shore patrolling up and down the East Coast. In fact, the history of the modern submarine itself has roots here in New Jersey as inventor John Philip Holland tested his early prototypes in the Passaic River before launching the world’s first modern working submarine, the USS Holland, in 1898 and turning it over to the Navy in 1900. Later, Jersey shipyard workers built WWII warships in Atlantic City, Bayonne, Camden and Hoboken. So when my fellow Members of Congress and I authorized the development of a new fleet of fast attack submarines in October of 1997, and then in the fall of 2015 authorized and appropriated funds to build the USS New Jersey, we looked to the day this day when American technology and maritime skills would combine to deliver a world-class product that extends our national defense across the globe.
Only two other vessels have borne the proud name of New Jersey: the World War II-era Battleship BB-62 now preserved as a museum in Camden, and the Battleship BB-16 commissioned in 1906 as part of President Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. Now the New Jersey, SSN 796, is the latest Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine to enter the famed Silent Service. The 23rd in a planned fleet of 40, it will see service with the U.S. Navy into the mid 21st century, sailing for decades staffed by many sailors are who are not yet born.
Today culminates centuries of Naval excellence and ties to New Jersey and more than five years of work since the keel was laid in 2019 making the USS New Jersey the newest, most modern naval vessel in the sea. Her dedicated crew, augmented by a formidable compliment of Tomahawk cruise missiles and MK-48 torpedoes, give her the power to deliver on the mission to protect the peace and deter aggressors and in so doing, shield the liberties of our great nation and the free world.
May God bless and protect all who sail on her, all those who serve in the U.S. Navy, all who call the great State of New Jersey their home, and may God bless the United States of America.
Sincerely,
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH Member of Congress
FRANK PALLONE, JR. 6TH DISTRICT, NEW JERSEY
June 11, 2024
Dear Officers and Crew of the USS New Jersey:
REPLY TO:
2107 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-4671
504 BROADWAY LONG BRANCH, NJ 07740 (732) 571-1140
67/69 CHURCH STREET KILMER SQUARE NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ 08901 (732) 249-8892
https://pallone.house.gov/
It is my honor and privilege to write today to commemorate the commissioning of USS NEW JERSEY.
The USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796), a Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, is the third naval vessel named after the great state of New Jersey. Bearing the motto of the Battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62) – Firepower for Freedom - USS NEW JERSEY carries the legacy of its predecessors. USS NEW JERSEY represents the dedication, strength, and determination of the U.S. Navy and I am confident that you will demonstrate selfless service in defense of the United States of America. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women of our military, and I thank you for your service
Congratulations on the commissioning of USS NEW JERSEY. I wish you all the best in your mission. Welcome to the fleet!
Sincerely,
FRANK PALLONE, JR. Member of Congress
MIKIE SHERRILL 11TH DISTRICT, NEW JERSEY
WASHINGTON OFFICE
1427 LONGWORTH HOB
WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-5034
FAX: (202) 225-3186
DISTRICT OFFICE
357 S. LIVINGSTON AVE, SUITE 201
LIVINGSTON, NJ 07039 (973) 526-5668
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TACTICAL AIR & LAND FORCES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COMPETITION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
June 2024
Dear Friends,
I am so excited to celebrate the commissioning of the USS NEW JERSEY, the Navy’s newest Virginia-class attack submarine! This is such a proud day for the crew, the Navy, all the workers and stakeholders who made this possible, and of course, for the State of New Jersey.
This ship follows in the footsteps of the proud Battleship New Jersey (BB 62). The Battleship served in World War II and Korea, then was recalled to service for the Vietnam War and beyond until finally being decommissioned for the last time in 1992. She remains the most decorated Battleship in U.S. Navy history and set a powerful example for every Navy crew since.
I am proud that SSN 796 is the first submarine in our fleet purpose-built to serve a mixed gender crew. This is a milestone that will continue to ensure that our submarine force can retain the best, brightest, and hardest working sailors, regardless of their gender.
The motto of the USS NEW JERSEY is “Firepower for Freedom.” As we enter the next decade of Great Power Competition, our Silent Service will be more important than ever. I’m so proud of what this ship and crew have already accomplished and know that they have set a foundation that will endure for the entire life of the ship from her first dive to her last trip to periscope depth. To all those who are serving and will serve aboard her, I wish you fair winds and following seas.
Sincerely,
Mikie Sherrill Member of Congress
MS/wt
THOMAS A. ARNONE, DIRECTOR
ROSS
F. LICITRA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR
SUSAN M. KILEY
DOMINICK “NICK”
ERIK ANDERSON
DIROCCO
Dear Commander Halle and Crew of the USS New Jersey (SSN-796),
On behalf of Monmouth County and its residents, we extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes on the commissioning of the USS New Jersey (SSN-796).
The commissioning ceremony is a time-honored tradition that celebrates the culmination of rigorous preparation of both the vessel and its crew to undertake their crucial missions. We are honored that the U.S. Navy and the USS New Jersey Commissioning Committee chose to host this historic event in Monmouth County.
The USS New Jersey, a Virginia-class submarine represents the pinnacle of naval engineering and capability. As the third vessel to bear the name of our great state, it carries a legacy of honor and service.
We recognize the vital role you play in maintaining the security and freedom of our great nation and your commitment to excellence and the sacrifices you make to protect our freedoms do not go unnoticed. We are deeply grateful for your service and dedication to our Country
As you prepare to undertake your missions, please know that you carry with you the unwavering support of Monmouth County.
Once again, congratulations on this momentous occasion and we thank you for your service.
Sincerely,
Thomas A. Arnone
Susan M. Kiley
Ross F. Licitra
Dominick “Nick” DiRocco Erik Anderson
“SEPTEMBER 2d, 1609 THIS IS A
LAND TO FALL IN WITH AND A PLEASANT LAND TO SEE.” Entry in the log of Henry Hudson’s Ship Half Moon made after the Dutch Explorer became the first European to come ashore in what was later known as Monmouth County
ANTHONY S. PERRY
Mayor
RICK W. HIBELL
Deputy Mayor
RYAN M. CLARKE
Committee Member
KIMBERLY KRATZ
Committee Member
KEVIN M SETTEMBRINO, AIA
Committee Member
TOWNSHIP OF MIDDLETOWN
Town Hall, One Kings Highway Middletown, NJ 07748-2594
Settled in 1664 “Proud of Our Rich Heritage”
ANTHONY P. MERCANTANTE, P.P., AICP
Township Administrator
HEIDI R. PIELUC, RMC/MMC, CPM
Township Clerk and Registrar
Tel: (732) 615-2000
Fax: (732) 957-9090 www.middletownnj.org
Dear Commander Steven Halle, Officers, and Crew of the USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796),
On behalf of the Township of Middletown, it is my honor and privilege to be part of one of the most sacred events in a ship’s history.
Today’s commissioning ceremony of the USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796) officially marks the entry of this ship into our nation’s military strength. We congratulate your officers, crew, and all who tirelessly dedicated themselves to launching this newest vessel into active service and clandestine missions to defend the United States and promote peace around the world.
This PCU-796 Virginia-class submarine, which bears the motto “Firepower for Freedom,” is the third United States Navy vessel named for the State of New Jersey. As we celebrate the journey of this submarine, we commend the crew who worked diligently to build it and who will man it to serve our country.
To the sailors of the USS NEW JERSEY, I wish you “fair winds and following seas.” As you bravely embark on your service to our nation on a ship representing the State of New Jersey, we honor the sacrifices you have made to protect and preserve our freedom.
As Ronald Reagan once said, "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave." Your dedication and bravery exemplify this spirit. You stand as the guardians of our liberty, the sentinels of our freedom. Your service is a beacon of hope and strength for our nation.
Welcome to the Submarine Force, USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796)! Continue to make us proud!
Sincerely,
Tony Perry, Mayor, Middletown Township
Newport News Shipbuilding proudly salutes the shipbuilders, officers, crew and Ship’s Sponsor Dr. Susan DiMarco on the commissioning of USS New Jersey (SSN 796), the nation’s newest Virginia-class submarine.
From Where It
The commissioning here in New Jersey holds a special place for Electric Boat. This is where John Holland started the submarine industry The advantage that protects our sailors, our families and our freedom.
Lincoln Electric has been a proud participant in the construction of the USS New Jersey and other U.S. naval vessels. We salute the talented and dedicated individuals involved in the design, construction, and launch of this vessel and wish its crew good luck and Godspeed as they take to the seas in defense of our nation.
SHIP’S CREST
USS New Jersey (SSN 796)
The outside edge of the crest lists the three wars that the battleship (BB 62) was involved in and the numerous battle stars that were awarded.
The horns on the top and the tail at the bottom were added by the crew after the initial crest was commissioned and represent the Jersey Devil, lending to our names as “Devils of the Deep.”
Inside the crest lies an outline of the state of New Jersey. Inside the state is an image of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, representing our drive for freedom, tenacity, and perseverance.
Centered is the faded image of the battleship USS New Jersey (BB 62), representing the past, and the submarine USS New Jersey (SSN 796) taking the name and her legacy into the future.
The phrase in Latin is the motto of both the vessels: Virtute Ignis pro Libertas, Firepower for Freedom!
Two stars centered represent the two previous vessels that proudly carried the name New Jersey.
The dolphins are the symbol of the men and women who patrol the depths and call the sea home.
USA
The New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism congratulates the United States Navy on the commissioning of the USS New Jersey (SSN 796).
let’s be social #visitnj
USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796)
CONGRATULATIONS
SSS® Clutch Company welcomes The USS New Jersey to the fleet.
SSS® Clutch Company is a proud supplier to the U.S. Navy.
There are more than 1400 SSS® Clutches operational in twelve Classes of U.S. Navy, U.S. Military Sealift Command and U.S. Coast Guard ships and three Classes of U.S. Navy submarines including SSN 688 Los Angeles Class, SSN 21 Seawolf Class, and SSN 774 Virginia Class.
USS New Jersey Ship’s Crest
The ship’s crest features the motto, “Firepower for Freedom” in Latin. On the left is the State of New Jersey with a portion of the famous painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware. These references to Washington’s victory at Trenton and the battleship New Jersey (BB-62) are meant to show that the submarine is the heir to a long tradition. The devil horns, tail, and wings on the outside of the crest are a reference to the Jersey Devil, the legendary creature said to inhabit the Pine Barrens.
New Jersey’s Long Naval Heritage
New Jersey was where USS Holland, the Navy’s first submarine, was designed and constructed in October 1900. Since the creation of that first submarine, two naval ships have been named New Jersey. A battleship (BB-16) was commissioned in 1906 and another battleship (BB-62) was commissioned in 1943. SSN 796 was named to honor the long-standing history its namesake state has had with the Navy, making SSN 796 the third naval ship to bear the name New Jersey.
COMMISSIONING COMMITTEE
Peter Engelman
President and Chairman
Julianne Thurrell Dods
Vice President
John Koehr Treasurer
Daniel A. Dermer Corporate Secretary
William A. Aitken
Paul Blodgett
Tim Doelger
David Guirguess
Carlton Hoye
Stephen Hutton
Capt Joe Lario USN (Ret)
Capt Timi Lindsay USN (Ret)
John Mui
Dave Rosenthal
Philip Patrick Rowan
Marshall Spevak
Joseph A. Velez
Rob Vroman
Jack Willard
Mike Zimmerman
COMMISSIONING SPONSORS
ADMIRAL
State of New Jersey
CAPTAIN
L3 Harris
Lockheed Martin
Jersey Mike’s
The Montgomery News
Merri-Makers Caterers
Navesink Country Club
New Jersey Bankers Association
Prudential
COMMANDER
Battleship New Jersey
Charles Edison Fund
Eagle Oaks Country Club
General Dynamics Electric Boat
General Dynamics - Mission Systems
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Leidos
Marotta Controls
Michael Ihrig Technical Consulting
Middletown Township
Monmouth County Tourism
New Jersey Devils
New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP)
Newport News Shipbuilding
Paul Blodgett
SSS Clutch
USAA
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER
Accenture • Andrew Sullivan
BAE Systems • BWX Technologies
Cecelia and John Kennedy
CM Equity • Cohen Partners
DC Fabricators • Earle Construction
Elizabeth Destination Marketing Organization
Globe Composite • Greencastle Consulting
Johnson & Johnson
Lakefield Family Foundation
Mercury Systems • Michael Malinowski
Naval Submarine League • Northrop Grumman
OceanFirst Foundation • Raytheon Technologies
Seacorp, LLC • Team Eagle Foundation
VFW of New Jersey
LIEUTENANT
Alternate Ending Brewing
Bar32 Chocolate
Dr. Susan DiMarco
Graham Communications
Hamilton Jewelers
Larry Arnold
Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST)
New Jersey Veterans Assistance Association (NJVAA)
Point Pleasant Boro Rotary
The Badge Company of New Jersey
Wilde Defense Consulting
LIEUTENANT JG
Allen Hoffman
Belford Brewery
Central Jersey Navy League of the US
Central Jersey Nurseries
Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Princeton
Compass Real Estate
Dine on Us
Elizabeth PBA
EPS Corporation
Federation Logistics
Ho-Ro Trucking
Larry Evans
Manasquan Bank
Pamela Brown
Patricia Herschkowitz
Peapack-Gladstone Bank
Princeton Orthopaedic Associates
Rick McGoey
State Shuttle & Hurley Limousine
USSVI - Jersey Shore Base
VFW of Bayville - 9503
VFW of Middletown
Weichert Princeton
Marcy Abbate
Vincent Ardizzone
Adom Asadourian
ENSIGN
All American Chevrolet
Amboy Bank
Bloom’s
Carter Braun
Classic Magnets
CW Brewing and Distilling
Jaguar Landrover of Princeton
Manville VFW Post 2290
Medford VFW Post 7677
Norma Milio
Rob and Jen Vroman
Ron Jon Surf Shop
Roundview Capital
Shriver’s Taffy
Spring Lake-Brielle Rotary
Steven M. Howard
The Bank of Princeton
The Coffee Platoon
Timi Lindsay
Towne Center Family Dental
Flounder Brewing Co.
The Alvarez Family
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER
Alfonso’s
David Ballentine
Basil D’Armiento
Eric Grandrimo
Earl Riley
Fritz Roegge
James Kapotes
Jersey Strong
Joe Lario
John Titterton
Joseph C. Pittman
Westlake Vets
SHIPMATE
Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce
Susan Bromirski
Christopher Bruno
Ronald Budin
Jane Cope
Miguel Damien
Robert DeBlasi
Kathleen Denker
Doug Douty
Lois Freiwald
Vito Filomeno
Michael Gussis
Maurice Hill
Mary Kehoe (Jane Kehow)
Daniel Marks
Carrol Marquez
Leah McCormack
Milhout
Robert Mock
Joseph Monaco
Eric Motley
Phillip Munoz
Tim Oliver
Mortimer and Kathleen O’Shea
Nick Pappas
Pat Pastrick
Kenneth Pochank
Patrick Reilly
Martin J. Silverstein
USSVI - South Base
Luis Arellano
SUPPORTER
Michael Ashby
William Barnett
Richard Burke
Richard Busick
Gerard Case
Gerald Clearwater
John Councill
Ryan Cox
Barbara Eckert
Melissa Elosge
Brian Foran
Tim Gillespie
Kevin Hobbie
Martin Horvath
Rev. Robert Hospodar
Raymond Kehoe
Frank Kozusko
Gary A. Lehman
Chia Li
Andrew MacGregor
Ron Mangarelli
Patrick Mannix
Marco Mattia
Leah McCormack
William McIlrath
Katherine Metcalf
Marvin Miller
Joseph Monaco
Allison Muench
Robert Munck
Daniel Nardiello
Antoinette Natale
Eric Nordstrom
Kevin O’Connor
Steve Parent
Terry Parker
Brett Pasquinelli
Rudy Peschel
George Poggioli
RCS Consultants
Dennis Reed
Michael Rehberg
Harry Schaufele
Bennie Shearer
Lawrence Sherwood
Peter Sweeney
Frank Zechman
DR. SUSAN DIMARCO Ship’s Sponsor
Susan DiMarco has been an active volunteer in civic and humanitarian activities in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and on the southern border. She volunteers with Catholic Charities, New York, where she provides guidance and assistance to those seeking asylum in this country. She also makes regular visits to the Texas border to assist with humanitarian aid for the migrant population in respite centers. Susan participates with the Human Needs Food Pantry, a local food bank in Montclair, New Jersey, that provides free food, clothing, and services to residents that fall below the poverty line.
In 2012, President Obama appointed Susan to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Susan was co-chair of the advisory council to the Obama Scholars Program at Occidental
College from 2014-2020 and remains on the council. She served on the Women’s Leadership Council at Lincoln Center in New York City from 2017-2019.
In her twenty-four years as a resident of northern New Jersey, Susan has served on the board of directors for the Montclair Art Museum, the Mental Health Association of Essex County, and the Montclair Development Corporation. Susan was vice chair of the board of directors of Covenant House, an international, privately-funded childcare agency. She assisted Covenant House in opening Nancy’s Place, a residence for youth with behavioral health needs in Montclair, New Jersey, in 2009.
Susan is a retired dentist with a degree from Georgetown University. She completed her training with a two-year postgraduate residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
CDR STEVEN A. HALLE Commanding Officer
CDR Steven A. Halle grew up in Lake Villa, Illinois, and enlisted in the Navy in 1999. He was selected for the Nuclear Enlisted Commissioning Program during his initial training and attended the University of Illinois starting in 2001. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and was awarded a commission in August of 2004.
Upon completion of initial nuclear and submarine officer training, his first operational assignment was onboard USS Ohio (SSGN 726) from 2006 until 2009. He then attended Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and earned a Master of Science in Applied Physics. He served on USS Missouri (SSN 780) as the Weapons Officer from 2012 until 2015 and conducted the maiden deployment to European Command (EUCOM). He then served as the Naval Submarine School’s Weapons Officer until early 2017. He was then assigned as Executive Officer onboard USS Hartford (SSN 768), where he completed ICEX 2018, a Surge Deployment, and EUCOM Deployment. He most recently served as the Submarine Non-nuclear Enlisted Community Manager in Millington, Tennessee before reporting to PCU New Jersey (SSN 796).
He is authorized to wear the Meritorious Service Medal (two awards), Navy Commendation Medal (four awards), Navy Achievement Medal (two awards) and other unit and personal awards. CDR Halle is married to Alissa and they reside in Chesapeake and have four children, Erin (15), Rowan (13), Margaret (10), and Maeve (6).
LCDR ANDREW HUTCHISON Executive Officer
LCDR Andrew Hutchison is from Jonesboro, Arkansas. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. He also holds a Master of Science in Chemistry from the University of Maryland and a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.
LCDR Hutchison’s sea time includes two Western Pacific deployments and three strategic deterrent patrols. He is honored to have served with crews that earned the Meritorious Unit Citation, Battle Efficiency award, and STRATCOM Omaha trophy. He served in various division officer roles aboard USS North Carolina (SSN 777) and as Engineer Officer aboard USS Nevada (SSBN 733) (GOLD).
Ashore, LCDR Hutchison recently served as Junior Board Member on the Pacific Fleet Commander’s Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board. Previously, he was an instructor of chemistry at the Naval Academy. LCDR Hutchinson is married to Katie and they live in Norfolk, Virginia, with their children Lorelai (11) and Julian (7).
HONORING THE DEVILS OF THE DEEP
Bravo Zulu U.S. Navy upon commissioning the USS New Jersey (SSN 796)
L3Harris congratulates the crew of the USS New Jersey as they set sail to protect and defend our nation’s freedoms from the ocean’s depths – Virtute Ignis pro Libertas, Firepower for Freedom! L3Harris proudly provides highly capable undersea warfare systems and expertise to the U.S. Navy and our nation’s shipbuilders to deliver the multi-mission Virginia-class submarine that executes a multitude of peacetime and wartime missions in defense of our country and our people.
ETVCM(SS) JOSEPH CALHOUN Chief of
the Boat
Master Chief Calhoun, from Lexington, North Carolina, joined the Navy in February 2001 as a Submarine Electronics Computer Field (SECF) specialist. After completing boot camp in 2001 and “A” school in Groton, he served aboard the USS Minneapolis St. Paul (SSN 708), followed by MARMC in Norfolk where he advanced to Petty Officer First Class.
Master Chief Calhoun completed Navigation Electronics Technician “C” school in 2010 and served on the USS Newport News (SSN 750), USS Boise (SSN 764), and the USS Maryland (SSBN 738) Gold crew, where he served as the Assistant Navigator and qualified Chief of the Boat.
In 2022, he joined COMSUBLANT TRE Team as TRE Assistant Navigator, earning Master Chief Petty Officer. He completed COB/CMC school in January 2024 and became Chief of the Boat for PCU Arkansas (SSN 800), then PCU New Jersey (SSN 796) in July 2024.
His awards include four Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. He is married to Jamie and they live in Chesapeake with their five children, Madison (20), Aaron (19), Chase (15), Georgia (11), and Eleanor (9).
America’s veterans have worked hard to make our lives more secure. Prudential is proud to do the same for them. We’re setting a new standard for education, training, and employment programs that help military families thrive today, and when they transition to civilian life. And for decades, we’ve been a leading voice in support of the issues and organizations that matter to veterans.
THE LEGEND OF THE JERSEY DEVIL
BY CHUCK OLDHAM
Long before the United States of America existed as a nation, Native Americans recognized a strange creature living in the region of what is now southern New Jersey and northern Pennsylvania, and according to cryptozoologist and writer Loren Coleman, even named a creek in the same area Popuessing, which translates as “place of the dragon.” By 1735, this creature had not only made itself known to the new immigrants flooding into the region from Europe, but had acquired its own origin story. Legend has it that one black night, in an isolated farmhouse in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, a woman, married to a shiftless drunkard and cursing her fate during her 13th childbirth, shrieked “let this
one be the devil!” The creature she bore was said to have killed her, attacked the attendants, and uttered an unearthly screech before it flew out into the darkness.
Encounters with what became known as the Jersey Devil continued from that time on and into the present day, and what had been a local legend eventually spread throughout New Jersey and beyond.
Over the years, the Jersey Devil was blamed for scores of dead pets and farm animals and hundreds of encounters, emerging out of the darkness to terrify and sometimes menace humans across several states, chasing them out of the woods, or into their homes, or flying above, around, or alongside their cars. It has caused widespread panic at various times across swaths of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, prompting people to lock themselves in their homes, close local schools, organize groups of armed men to patrol the streets and hinterlands, and offer up rewards for its death or capture. In the early 1800s, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother Joseph claimed to have encountered the Jersey Devil while hunting in the Pine Barrens. U.S. Navy hero Stephen Decatur is said to have shot one through the wing at about the same time.
Encounters over the past three centuries have commonly yielded descriptions of a creature with a long neck; a face like a dog, horse, or camel; glowing red eyes; leathery, batlike wings; a kangaroo-like body 3- 4- or possibly 6-feet tall; commonly with a long tail and sometimes with horns, that leaves behind hoof-shaped footprints if it leaves any trace at all beyond the echoes of its unearthly screeches and the terror of the witnesses. Other descriptions include pink, pig-like animals, giant, hairy bipeds, flying men, and “a twolegged cow with wings.” It has been shot, electrocuted, and run over by vehicles seemingly without effect, perched on city rooftops, peered into windows, landed on the roofs of cars, squeezed under fences, and disappeared into thin air. While several people over the past three centuries claimed to have killed it, no one has ever produced a body, and a debate over whether the Jersey Devil is a real creature or something supernatural continues to rage.
What is certain is that it has become firmly ensconced in the culture and lore of the state of New Jersey. The Jersey Devil has lent its name and various likenesses to T-shirts, bumper stickers, pins, soap, air fresheners, wine, beer, coffee, and countless other items of merchandise. It is the namesake of New Jersey’s NHL hockey team. Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about it.
Whether a real creature lives in the Pine Barrens or lurks in the night sky or not, there is no question that it exists as a mystery, a legend, and a firm part of New Jersey culture and lore.
Right: An illustration of the Jersey Devil printed in a 1909 issue of the Philadelphia Bulletin, said to be from an eyewitness description. One senses the artist did not take the eyewitness entirely seriously.
USS New Jersey (BB 16) shown in disruptive camouflage during World War I.
NAMESAKE SHIPS
BY CHUCK OLDHAM
The first USS New Jersey in the U.S. Navy, the Virginia-class battleship BB 16, was launched more than a century ago, on Nov. 10, 1904, and commissioned in Boston Navy yard on May 12, 1906.
The battleship was armed with four 12-inch guns, eight 8-inch guns, 12 6-inch guns, a dozen each of 3-inch and 3-pounder guns, two 1-pounders,
and like her namesake today, four 21-inch torpedo tubes.
This first New Jersey was part of President Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet during its round-the-world cruise demonstrating American sea power. In April 1914, New Jersey was part of a force that landed sailors and Marines at Vera Cruz, taking the city and its customs house and evacuating American nationals. Later the same year, New Jersey responded to unrest in Hispaniola’s two nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. During World War I, New Jersey trained sailors in Chesapeake Bay. After the Armistice in 1918, she made four voyages to France,
transporting 4,675 personnel home to the United States. New Jersey was decommissioned in 1920. In 1923, as her final duty for the nation, she was expended as a target during Gen. Billy Mitchell’s pioneering tests of the use of air power against warships.
BB 62
While the first New Jersey was a battleship, the second New Jersey might be called the battleship, certainly one of the most famous capital ships ever built. BB 62 was launched exactly one year after Pearl Harbor was attacked. The Iowa-class battleship displaced 45,000 tons and was 887.7 feet long, with a beam of just over 108 feet. Capable of 33 knots, New Jersey was armed with nine 16-inch guns, 20 5-inch guns, and 80 40mm and 49 20mm antiaircraft guns.
New Jersey was at the center of the final big fleet actions of World War II, first in the battle of the Philippine Sea, and next during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, as Adm. Bull Halsey’s flagship.
For the remainder of the war, New Jersey continued to protect the aircraft carriers during air strikes and carry out shore bombardment on enemy-held territory, from the Philippines, to China, to Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After a refit in the United States
Commissioned in 1943, she joined the Fifth Fleet in January 1944, and as flagship screened the fleet’s aircraft carriers during the attacks on Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, provided bombardment and fire support for the assault on Eniwetok, and led a raid on Truk to disrupt the attempted Japanese relief of the islands. In June, she screened the carriers during the invasion of the Marianas, and then as flagship of Third Fleet, struck targets throughout the area of operations and across the Philippines. Beginning in October, the fleet attacked Okinawa and Taiwan to reduce Japanese air power in preparation for the invasion of the Philippine islands.
Above: USS New Jersey (BB 62) fires her 16-inch guns in a full nine-gun salvo near the 38th parallel off Korea during her second war, November 1951.
At that time the world’s only active battleship, she fired her first shots on Vietnam Sept. 30, 1969, against targets near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and for the next six months carried out bombardment and fire support along the coast of Vietnam.
during the final months of the war, New Jersey arrived in Tokyo Bay after the Japanese surrender to act as flagship in Japanese waters until 1946. She was decommissioned in 1948.
KOREAN WAR
In November 1950, New Jersey was called to rejoin the fleet, recommissioned to serve in the Korean War. From May 1951, she served two tours of duty in Korean waters, bombarding enemy positions and acting as seaborne mobile artillery. She provided direct fire support to United Nations troops, carried out bombardment before ground offensives, interdicted enemy supply and communications routes, and destroyed supplies or troop concentrations, both on the main line of battle and behind enemy lines. She completed her first tour in November 1951. She returned to waters off Korea in April 1953 and resumed her shore bombardment and escort duties until July 26, when a cease fire was declared. An armistice agreement was signed on July 27, and New Jersey returned to the U.S. in November. She was again decommissioned and placed in reserve in August 1957.
VIETNAM WAR
New Jersey ’s participation in her third conflict began April 6, 1968, when she was recommissioned and reactivated for shore bombardment.
At that time the world’s only active battleship, she fired her first shots on Vietnam Sept. 30, 1969, against targets near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and for the next six months carried out bombardment and fire support along the coast of Vietnam. In her first two months alone, New Jersey fired nearly 10,000 rounds at targets, more than 3,000 of them 16-inch rounds.
She returned from her Vietnam combat tour in May 1969, and in December New Jersey was once again decommissioned.
LEBANON
In December 1982, under the Reagan administration’s plan to grow the Navy to more than 600 ships, New Jersey was once again recommissioned.
In the Mideast, civil war had broken out in Lebanon in 1983, and a Multinational Force of peacekeepers including U.S. Marines was deployed, supported by elements of the Sixth Fleet including New Jersey. Marines, in their positions near Beirut International Airport, were repeatedly fired upon, and on Oct. 23, 1983, suicide bombers using truck bombs destroyed a barracks occupied by peacekeepers, killing 240 Marines and 58 French paratroopers. In December, New Jersey was authorized to fire her guns for the first time, and she carried out fire missions in February 1984, before President Ronald Reagan withdrew the Marines.
After refitting, New Jersey formed the core of a surface action group designated Battle Group Romeo. By 1989, however, the Cold War was in its final stages as the Soviet Union collapsed. New Jersey was sent to the Persian Gulf during the same year, but decommissioned for the final time in February 1991, having missed Operation Desert Storm.
On Oct. 14, 2001, New Jersey opened as a museum and memorial on the Camden, New Jersey waterfront.
New Jersey is the most decorated battleship in history, having earned nine battle stars for World War II service, four battle stars for Korean War service, three battle stars for Vietnam War service, three battle stars for action in the Persian Gulf and Lebanon, and many other awards.
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Congratulations Officers & Crew of the USS New Jersey (SSN-796) from Navesink Country Club
We are thrilled to be a part of your journey!
STATEWIDE CHALLENGE COIN DESIGN CONTEST
BY JULIANNE DODS
In an exciting initiative to celebrate the commissioning of the newest nuclear submarine in the U.S. Navy, USS New Jersey (SSN 796), the New Jersey Commissioning Committee wanted to engage young artistic minds across the state. High school and middle school students throughout New Jersey were invited to participate in a “challenge coin” design contest, resulting in an impressive submission of more than 300 unique designs.
This contest was not just about artistic flair; it required students to delve into the rich military history of New Jersey. Each participant, whether working solo or in a team of up to three, submitted a sketch or drawing accompanied by a brief explanation of their design’s symbolism and significance. The only constraints were that the design fit within a 2-inch diameter circle and that
it showcase New Jersey’s military legacy. This legacy includes the new USS New Jersey (SSN 796) and its illustrious predecessors: the Virginia-class battleship BB 16 and the Iowa-class battleship BB 62.
The obverse (front) of the coin was crafted by the New Jersey Commissioning Committee, a dedicated non-profit organization overseeing the commissioning event.
AND THE WINNER IS...
Russell Karshmer, a junior at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology at Sandy Hook and a cadet chief petty officer in the NJROTC program, emerged as the winner of this prestigious contest. His design stood out among the 24 top entries judged by the committee based on five key criteria: originality, creativity, relevance, clarity, and quality.
On June 18th 2022, The Montgomery News organized SUBFEST; a celebration of our Navy, as well as a fundraiser towards the commemoration of the USS New Jersey. It featured rides, food, games, and a special musical performance by Slippery When Weta professional Bon Jovi tribute band. Today, The
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Karshmer’s winning design captures a breathtaking “High Point” in New Jersey’s history – the scenic view from Mount Mitchell Scenic Overlook, the highest point in New Jersey and on the Eastern seaboard. His intricate design features iconic symbols of New Jersey, such as the state bird (an Eastern Goldfinch) perched on the state tree (a red oak), holding the state flower (a violet) in its beak. The design also includes the USS New Jersey and the historic Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States. Karshmer incorporated the official state colors of New Jersey, Blue and Buff, along with three oak leaves, three acorns, and the three piers of Naval Weapons Station Earle, symbolizing the USS New Jersey (SSN 796) as the third warship to bear the state’s name and New Jersey’s status as the third state to join the Union.
“The Commissioning Committee was extremely impressed by the thoughtfulness
Left: Russell Karshmer of Highlands, New Jersey, had his design selected as the winner of the USS New Jersey challenge coin contest.
and detail included in all of the submissions,” remarked Peter Engelman, president and chairman of the New Jersey Commissioning Committee. “We applaud all of the students for their creativity and congratulate Russell for his remarkable work in helping to depict this historical event.”
As a reward for his outstanding design, Karshmer received a $1,000 scholarship and an invitation to the prestigious Commissioning Ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle.
ABOUT THE NEW JERSEY COMMISSIONING COMMITTEE
The New Jersey Commissioning Committee is a volunteer-led, non-profit organization established to act as a bridge between the ship and its namesake state. The committee coordinates and funds various activities leading up to the commissioning ceremony, celebrating the crew, their families, and the vessel itself.
LINKING THE USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796) TO THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
BY PETER ENGELMAN
Amarvelous state – rich with history, filled with beauty, and armed with a special culture is linked to a fantastic crew – the crew of the USS New Jersey (SSN 796).
The linkage comes through the navy’s Namesake Program, and is facilitated through the efforts of the New Jersey Commissioning Committee. The primary goal of
the namesake program is to build a relationship and a sense of appreciation between the two entities. This was accomplished through “crew visits,” during which a select group of the crew traveled from Virginia to New Jersey for a few days and participated in a variety of events, such as youth presentations, company tours, community service, military appreciation events, TV and radio
Above: Members of New Jersey’s crew tasting a New Jersey staple – “pork roll” (or is it Taylor Ham) at a classic Jersey diner.
Clockwise from top left: : After a tour of the Hard Rock Cafe, Hard Rock Atlantic City President George Goldhoff bought the sailors “New Jersey famous” Whitehouse subs. • The boat’s first gift: A custom license plate from the New Jersey SubVets, presented by New Jersey’s longest-living submariner. • These children at School No. 28 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, get a thank you from one of the boat’s crew members after singing The Beatles’ famous song “Yellow Submarine” to the crew. • The STEM students at Egg Harbor Township Police Athletic League show off their robotic creations to the crew. • A question and answer session at a YMCA summer camp in Madison, New Jersey.
appearances, and New Jersey historical events.
The commanding officer set a high bar –that all sailors would make the trip and each visit would include time on BB 62. And visit they did, as shown on these pages.
Mission accomplished – the visits provided for a mutual appreciation: The crew became linked with the history and culture of the state and the citizens gained an understanding and appreciation of the role that the Navy and submarine play in contributing to our national defense.
And there will be more…
On behalf of the Eagle Oaks Board of Directors, mem bers and staff, Congratulations to the officers and crew on the com missioning of the USS New Jersey
Eagle
Clockwise from top left: Crew members of the USS New Jersey visit Marotta Controls in Montville, New Jersey, a manufacturer of key components for the boat. • The crowd went wild saluting the sailors at a New Jersey Devils game. • The New Jersey ’s commanding officer plays George Washington at a reenactment of the general’s crossing of the Delaware. • Being protected by the “big guns” of the New Jersey ’s big sister – battleship BB 62. • What’s a military appreciation day without sailors? Crew members at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. • The crew and local Scouts work to rebuild a house decimated by Hurricane Ida. • The crew visits Imperial Weld Ring Corp. in Elizabeth, New Jersey, another manufacturer of components for the boat.
Clockwise from top left: Crew members visit Fluid Conditioning Products in Lititz, Pennsylvania, manufacturers of precision filters used on the boat. • Relaxing at Alternate Ending, one of the commissioning sponsors, in Aberdeen, New Jersey. • Bet you can’t guess where New Jersey crew members are in this photo. • Visiting Johnson and Johnson, one of New Jersey’s most famous companies. • Learning history on the green in Morristown, New Jersey, hanging out with George Washington and Alexander Hamilton at the Alliance statue.
JUST RIGHT
Virginia-class submarines are on a track of constant improvement and upgrade
BY CHUCK OLDHAM
The commissioning of USS New Jersey (SSN 796) marks a watershed moment for the U.S. Navy
Submarine Force. It not only marks the moment that this individual submarine is brought to life by its crew to become an active part of the fleet, but the year, some two decades after the commissioning of USS Virginia (SSN 774), that Virginia-class submarines will outnumber the Los Angeles class to become the largest operational class of nuclear-powered submarines in the Navy.
The Navy operates three types of submarines today: ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), cruise missile submarines (SSGNs), and attack submarines (SSNs). Of these, by far the most numerous are the attack submarines. U.S. Navy attack submarines conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions; deploy, support, and recover special operations units; conduct strike missions ashore with Tomahawk land attack missiles; seek out and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships; protect carrier battle groups; and engage in mine warfare.
All U.S. Navy submarines are nuclear-powered, and have been since the retirement of the last diesel-electric “boat” in 1990. Submariners refer to their vessels as boats because strictly speaking, before the advent of nuclear power, they were essentially torpedo boats that could temporarily submerge. Submarines spent most of their time on the surface, running on diesel engines. Only when they needed to hide did they shut down their diesels, submerge, and run quietly on batteries to either stalk their prey or escape from their hunters. Their endurance submerged, however, was limited to an absolute maximum of about 48 hours before they had to surface and become “torpedo boats” once again.
Opposite: The Virginiaclass submarine John Warner (SSN 785) shown during sea trials.
Above: USS New Jersey is rolled out of the assembly building to the floating dry dock. The Virginia-class submarines are built in a teaming arrangement, with two different shipyards building sections of the submarines, and then each shipyard taking it in turn to carry out final assembly of the sections.
This all changed with the commissioning of USS Nautilus (SSN 571) in 1954. Splitting the atom ended the submarine’s dependence on the surface, and today a Navy submarine might submerge just outside port and never break the surface again until it returns, its time submerged limited only by food and the endurance of the crew. Today the entire U.S. Navy submarine fleet, with far-flung commitments and a wide variety of roles and missions, relies upon the incomparable combination of speed, payload, and endurance that only nuclear power can deliver. Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and to an increasing extent China and India, also operate nuclear submarines in growing numbers.
Today the U.S. Navy operates three classes of nuclear-powered attack submarines, or SSNs. The oldest and most predominant are the 23 remaining operational boats of the Los Angeles class. Development of the class began in 1967 in response to submarine advances in the Soviet Union. First commissioned in 1976, USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) was about 50% larger in size and
displacement than the preceding Sturgeon class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. One reason for the increase in size was acoustic quieting, which was thought at the time to require a big submarine to accommodate the sound isolation of machinery required for extreme stealth even at higher speeds. The submarines of the class are 360 feet long, with a 33-foot beam, and displace approximately 6,900 tons submerged. Their single reactors drive one shaft that propels the boat at more than 25 knots. All the boats are armed with four torpedo tubes through which can be fired torpedoes as well as other munitions. Block II and later boats, which represent all of the boats still in commission, were also armed with 12 Tomahawk vertical launch tubes in the bow. These later 688Is (for “improved”) are quieter, and built with improved sonars and other sensors and upgraded electronics. They were also given the ability to lay mines and were optimized for under-ice operations, which included moving their forward diving planes from the sail to the bow. A total of 62
Los Angeles-class boats were built between 1972 and 1996, construction more or less divided between Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat.
While the Los Angeles class remains for now the largest class of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines ever built, for most of the Cold War the number of U.S. Navy attack submarines was dwarfed by the submarine fleet of the Soviet Union. In 1980, the Soviet submarine force peaked at approximately 480 boats, and even in 1990, it had more than 260 submarines of all types. Against this the U.S. Navy had at the time approximately half that number, but such was the confidence in U.S. material and technical superiority that this disparity in numbers could be accepted.
As the planned follow-on to the Los Angeles class, the Seawolf class was envisioned and designed in that Cold War environment to extend the qualitative superiority of the Navy’s attack submarine force. The class was built first and foremost for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in a blue water, open ocean environment. The class was intended to be faster, deeper-diving, and more heavily armed than any rival or allied submarine in existence – or likely to be developed in the near future. It would also provide a level of acoustic quieting then unknown. It was famously said that a Seawolfclass at its tactical speed would be as quiet as a Los Angelesclass submarine tied up alongside the pier. When first-of-
Above: New Jersey (SSN 796) shown during her initial sea trials in February 2024. New Jersey spent several days at sea to test the boat’s systems and components.
class Seawolf (SSN 21) was laid down in 1989, it was the ultimate example of the SSN state of the art, but it was also expensive at a time when the Soviet Union was crumbling. The class was meant to take on Soviet submarines in their bastions with the 50 torpedoes and other munitions they could carry and fire from their eight large, 26.5-inch diameter torpedo tubes, and then use their high speed, extreme acoustic stealth, and deep diving performance to return home and reload for another round.
The Seawolf and sister Connecticut (SSN 22) are 353 feet long, with a beam of 40 feet and a submerged displacement of 9,138 tons. A single reactor drives a single shaft to deliver a speed of more than 25 knots submerged. The class has a crew of 14 officers and 126 enlisted personnel. The third ship of the class, USS Jimmy Carter, (SSN 23) was optimized for special missions, with a 100-foot hull extension inserted, increasing submerged displacement to 12,158 tons.
But Jimmy Carter was the last of the Seawolf class. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, no other perceived great power naval rivals, and budgets shrinking, U.S. leadership saw the capabilities of the Seawolf class as no
longer absolutely vital, and sought a less expensive solution, truncating the class at only three boats.
The Virginia class was born from the need to keep a qualitative edge over the submarines of peer adversaries, but also hold procurement costs down in order to build in numbers to replace the Los Angeles-class submarines as they reached the ends of their service lives. Beginning in 1991, while the first Seawolf was still being built, the Navy began to develop the “Centurion” (so named because the project was for a new submarine for a new century) concept.
Intended originally as a complement to the Seawolf class, the goals of the Centurion project, according to Norman Polmar and K.J. Moore’s definitive Cold War Submarines, were to produce a submarine that was:
1. substantially less expensive than the Seawolf;
2. capable of maintaining U.S. undersea superiority against a greatly reduced but continuing Russian submarine effort;
3. more capable than the Seawolf or improved Los Angeles classes for operations in littoral areas, and
4. better able than the Seawolf or improved Los Angeles classes to incorporate major new submarine technologies as they became available.
Above: The Virginia-class attack submarine USS North Dakota (SSN 784) transits the Thames River as it pulls into homeport at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, with a Dry Deck Shelter housed aboard. The three-chamber Dry Deck Shelter supports special operations forces (SOF).
Soon known as the New Attack Submarine, or more often NSSN, it would have half the torpedo tubes and two-thirds the displacement of the Seawolf class, but was designed to carry out a range of missions, including intelligence gathering and supporting special operations in the littorals, along with the traditional anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare roles of the Cold War.
According to volume 2 of the RAND Corporation’s report Learning from Experience: Lessons from the U.S. Navy’s Ohio, Seawolf, and Virginia Submarine Programs, the Navy’s mission needs statement assigned seven core missions to the new submarine:
• covert strike
• anti-submarine warfare
• anti-ship warfare
• battle group support
U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY CMDR. JASON M. GEDDES
Right: A Navy diver from Naval Special Warfare Logistics Support conducts lockout training with the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine USS Hawaii (SSN 776) for material certification. Virginia-class submarines were designed from the outset to support SOF operations with a large lockout chamber.
• covert intelligence
• covert mine-laying
• special operations.
The Navy determined that while some performance elements of the Virginia class could fall below those of the Seawolf class, acoustic quieting was one criterion in which it would have to be as good or better. But this was achieved in a submarine smaller than the Seawolf class.
“Heretofore,” wrote Polmar in his article “The U.S. Navy: New Approach to Submarines” in Proceedings, “the U.S. submarine community believed that increased isolation of machinery from the hull – a space-consuming practice – was the key to acoustic silencing. But Seawolf sound levels have been achieved in the NSSN, albeit with a smaller, S9G power plant, by modular construction and enhanced isolation of entire decks as well as machinery, a technique labeled modular isolated deck structure (MIDS).”
Several new techniques and strategies were also used in designing and building the Virginia class to save money, build in efficiency, and increase flexibility. On an organizational level, it was decided that the submarines would be built in a teaming arrangement between General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding shipyards. This would support the health of the shipbuilding industrial base and preserve the vital and perishable skillsets needed to build such specialized vessels, but it was not something that had been done before. Nor were some of the construction techniques themselves.
Unlike earlier submarines, the Virginias are built in modules, assembled at separate facilities and gathered at the final assembly shipyard to be completed and tested. In the past, submarines had their pressure hulls completed first, and equipment was installed through narrow existing openings into the cavities in the narrow hull. This was time-consuming, hazardous, and expensive. The joint construction program instead had the two yards building individual modules for all the submarines. Newport News Shipbuilding would build the bow, stern, sail, torpedo room, auxiliary machinery and habitability spaces; General Dynamics Electric Boat would build the pressure hull, engine room, and control room. The shipyards would alternate on the building of the reactor plant as well as the final assembly of the completed modules. All of these modules had to fit together seamlessly, and advanced computer software played a dominant role in making this happen.
“The Virginia was designed entirely by computer using CAD 3-D (CATIA IV) modeling software and the Integrated Design Manufacturing System,” according to Learning from Experience. “With the CAD system, engineers built and rebuilt the ship with hundreds of iterations. All of the prototypes for the Virginia class were done electronically, with the exception of a select few compartments where physical mock-ups were made due to a high level of component density or personnel interaction.”
Dear Commander Halle and the Crew of the USS New Jersey,
As the sponsor of USS New Jersey, I congratulate you on this proud occasion. Her journeys will be formidable in the defense of our nation; a warship whose success depends on the bravery and commitment of her commander and her crew.
I salute and honor all who will serve on the USS New Jersey in her selfless mission.
With Gratitude,
USS NEW JERSEY (SSN 796)
BWX Technologies, Inc. congratulates the U.S. Navy on the commissioning of the USS New Jersey (SSN 796) and is proud to have manufactured her reactor.
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USS Virginia (SSN 774), emerged as a submarine that was only slightly larger than the Los Angeles class, at 377 feet long and with a beam of 34 feet, though displacing almost 1,000 tons more at approximately 7,800 tons submerged. The Virginia class have four torpedo tubes, but along with being armed with Mark 48 ADCAP torpedoes, from the start had provision for vertical launch of 12 Tomahawk land attack missiles. The submarines have a crew complement of 15 officers and 117 enlisted personnel.
Left: The Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS Illinois (SSN 786) shown surfaced between two sheets of Arctic Ocean ice during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2022. Virginia-class submarines are designed to carry out a wide range of missions in every ocean of the world.
The class also added capabilities not included in the Seawolf design, which had been devoted principally to antisubmarine warfare. The class was designed from the start with operations in the littorals in mind, along with traditional blue-water missions. “The class has special features to support SOF,” according to Navy documents, “including a reconfigurable torpedo room which can accommodate a large number of SOF personnel and all their equipment for prolonged deployments, as well as future off-board payloads. The class also has a large lockout truck (LOT) for divers” that enables them to depart clandestinely together for a shoreline.
“In Virginia-class SSNs, traditional periscopes have been supplanted by two photonics masts that host visible and infrared digital cameras atop telescoping arms. With the removal of the barrel periscopes, the ship’s control room has been moved down one deck and away from the hull’s curvature, affording it more room and an improved layout that provides the commanding officer with enhanced situational awareness,” according to the Navy.
The class also took advantage, and continues to take advantage, of commercial-off-the-shelf technology (COTS) and open systems architecture. In earlier classes of ships and submarines, computer updates came through insertion of actual hardware made to military specifications, which was expensive and had long development times. COTS allowed for more frequent and cheaper updates of software, taking advantage of the quicker development times of civilian computing and rapid increases in processing power.
The modular construction of the Virginia class also allows for much faster development of capabilities and technologies, enabling the “spiral development” of the submarines to keep them up to date with new systems and payloads. As production has continued, the Virginia class has been constantly improved with block updates during construction as well as the spiral updates performed periodically between deployments. This means that, due to its open system architecture, the Virginia class can accommodate new technologies like unmanned drones and the newest weapons as well as undergo constant improvement through regular software and information technology updates.
Major changes in configuration and hardware come through block development.
Block I boats were constructed of 10 modules. Block II saw these 10 modules reduced to four super modules, which saved several hundred million dollars per submarine.
Block III brought the first big changes to the design. The Navy redesigned approximately 20 percent of the ship to reduce acquisition costs as part of the Block III contract. The two biggest changes were to the bows of the boats. First, the airbacked sonar sphere on previous boats was replaced by a horseshoe-shaped, waterbacked Large Aperture Bow (LAB) array, improving detection capabilities while being cheaper, simpler, and safer, with fewer points of penetration to the pressure hull.
The new bow also replaced the 12 individual Vertical Launch System (VLS) tubes with two large diameter 87-inch Virginia Payload Tubes (VPTs). The VPTs were derived from the Multiple All-up Round Canisters (MACs) that had already been employed on the four Ohio-class SSBNs that had been converted into cruise missile submarines (SSGNs). Each VPT can launch six Tomahawk cruise missiles, and with more volume than the original VLS tubes, the VPTs provide more flexibility while reducing acquisition and construction costs. These Block III design changes will continue on all future Virginia-class boats. Block III hulls include SSNs 784-791.
Block IV boats introduce small design changes that help reduce total ownership costs for the boats, whether in production, operations, or maintenance.
While New Jersey is not the lead boat of Block IV, it pioneers one very important design change in that it is the first Virginiaclass submarine designed and built from the start for a crew composed of both males and females. While U.S. Navy submarines currently have gender-integrated crews serving aboard, they were modified after being built. Female officers began going to sea in submarines in 2011, and female enlisted sailors began serving in submarines in 2016. More than 600 female submariners serve on operational submarines in the Submarine
Force today, but New Jersey is the first boat built from the keel up to be optimized for a gender-integrated crew. Some 40 females serve aboard New Jersey today.
Beginning with the second boat in Block V, Arizona (SSN 803), the boats will incorporate the Virginia Payload Module (VPM). Each VPM will incorporate four large diameter payload tubes, each of them carrying seven Tomahawk or similar missiles, for a total of 28 missiles per VPM. This means Block V boats will each have 40 vertical launch tubes available. The 84-foot-long modules will bring the length of the Block V boats to 461 feet, and displacement to 10,200 tons. The VPM module also retains the hosting of dry deck shelters, as well as hosting “additional advanced payloads via multiple ocean interfaces,” according to Navy materials.
“The boats in this class are the most advanced attack submarines ever designed,” said Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, Program Executive Office, Attack Submarines, upon the keel authentication ceremony of Arizona . “Their stealth, firepower, and maneuverability are superior to every other attack submarine force in the world. Additionally, Arizona will be the first of the Virginia-class equipped with the Virginia Payload Module, enabling the submarine to deliver an even wider variety of capabilities. Building, operating and maintaining Arizona and other Virginia-class subs is crucial to ensuring the Navy’s ability to project power in an ever-shifting global threat environment, and to maintaining peace and the free operation of our sea lanes.”
Newport News will carry most of the building load on Block V hulls, due to Electric Boat’s workload on the new Columbia-class SSBNs. Block V will include SSNs 802-811.
Two additional future Blocks, Blocks VI and VII, will incorporate Block V modifications and future changes, as well as test and prove out technologies planned for incorporation into the future SSN(X) fast attack submarine, and so the evolution of U.S. Navy fast attack submarines will continue, informing the next generation in more than a century of development and tradition.
SUBMARINE DEVELOPMENT
A survey of submarine visionaries and pioneering boats
BY CRAIG COLLINS
The historical record is awash with examples of early peoples seeking to explore the underwater world. In a section of the ancient Greek text Problemata , which may or may not have been written by Aristotle around 360 B.C., the author hypothesizes the use of a kind of diving bell, an inverted “kettle” filled with air to give sponge divers an underwater base of operations for extended dives.
During Alexander the Great’s siege of Tyre in 332 B.C., enemy divers continually severed the mooring ropes of Alexander’s ships and set them adrift to crash into each other. Though no record of the siege mentions the use of a diving bell, a legend emerged of Alexander being lowered into the harbor in a glass barrel or jar for several minutes to observe the goings-on. For centuries thereafter, versions of this tale were celebrated in texts and paintings from Britain to India.
One of the first actual uses of the diving bell was recorded by Francesco de Marchi of Bologna, who, in 1535, used a primitive one-person diving bell to explore the sunken wrecks of the Emperor Caligula’s fabled Lake Nemi ships. By now, the Western world’s leading thinkers had begun to envision a kind of underwater boat that could move under propulsion. Leonardo da Vinci, for one, claimed to have figured out how a person could remain submerged for an extended period of time – but also claimed he would never publish the details of this information, “because of the evil nature of men who practice assassination at the bottom of the sea.”
In 1578, seven decades after da Vinci’s death, the English mathematician William Bourne published his own idea for a submersible in the book Inventions or Devices, which included a description of “a shippe or boat that may goe under the water unto the bottome, and so come again at your pleasure.” Though he included no drawings or models, Bourne described how the craft – essentially a wooden boat covered in oiled leather – could be raised or lowered in the
water by filling and emptying ballast tanks, and how its occupants could breathe by means of a hollow mast protruding upward.
The first submersible boats to be made to Bourne’s description were conceived by Dutch physician Cornelius Drebbel, who tutored the children of King James I and served as “court inventor.” While Bourne had hypothetically solved the problems of buoyancy and air supply, Drebbel added a solution to how the boat could be propelled: A crew of oarsmen, if the boat were properly sealed and ballasted, could drive it. Few records of Drebbel’s design remain, but he built and successfully tested at least three of these submersibles – the largest of which carried 16 passengers and was demonstrated
in front of King James and several thousand spectators. The boat stayed submerged for three hours, cruising at a maximum depth of about 15 feet.
Drebbel’s invention impressed King James – who rode along for a test dive beneath the Thames – but England’s Royal Navy reacted to these demonstrations with indifference, establishing an unfortunate precedent. For the next three centuries, while the English continued to dismiss the submarine’s potential, their enemies developed and refined the submarine as a means of attacking the world’s most powerful navy.
In 1775, the young American David Bushnell, with encouragement from both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, devised
Opposite: A 16th century painting of Alexander the Great being lowered into the water in a kind of glass diving bell.
Above: David Bushnell’s Turtle submarine design.
the Turtle to attack the British warships blockading colonial ports. Small and cumbersome, propelled by two screw propellers, the Turtle proved too difficult to operate; it failed in its mission to blow up HMS Eagle in New York Harbor and was later sunk. It was, however, the first documented use of a submarine in combat.
The next great innovator in submarine technology was the Irish-American artist and engineer Robert Fulton, who spent many years in Europe and grew to loathe the Royal Navy – which he, an Irish nationalist, believed was choking off freedom and commerce around the world. By the late 1790s, Fulton had developed plans for an undersea boat he called the Nautilus. Sheathed in copper over iron ribs, the Nautilus was a cigar-shaped craft, 21 feet long and more than 6 feet at the widest, powered by a hand-cranked propeller. Horizontal fins controlled the angle of dive, and a hollow iron keel served as its ballast tank. Above deck, the Nautilus had several new features – a fan-shaped sail that could be deployed to help propel the boat when surfaced; a periscope that would allow an underwater observer to see above the horizon; and a small observation dome that presaged the modern conning tower. Bottled, compressed air allowed the manned craft to remain submerged for up to five hours, and a snorkel could be extended to supplement this supply.
The Nautilus was designed to carry an explosive charge Fulton called a “carcass,” also commonly known then as a “torpedo,” that could be attached to the hull of a ship and detonated from a distance, making it an ideal weapon to break the Royal Navy’s blockade of France. After successful demonstrations of the Nautilus in the Seine and the English Channel, Fulton offered to make submarines for the French – who declined, for both practical and moral reasons. A
Left: A reconstruction of Robert Fulton’s 1799 Nautilus, considered the first practical submarine.
Below: Fulton drawing from an 1806 submarine proposal rejected by the U.S. government.
human-powered submarine was simply too slow, and its range too limited, to be useful in naval combat – and the French Ministry of the Marine considered the submarine an underhanded tactical weapon, fit for pirates. Fulton lent credence to this idea when he asked for himself and his men to be commissioned as officers in the French navy, officially recognized as belligerents, to avoid being executed if they were captured.
Rebuffed by the French, Fulton apparently shrugged off his hatred of the British and offered to sell his plans to Prime Minister William Pitt, who encouraged a public demonstration of the stealth attack. This kind of warfare was promptly denounced by other Britons as cowardly, an attitude later summed up by John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent and admiral of the fleet: “[Pitt] is the greatest fool that ever existed to encourage a mode of war which they who commanded the seas did not want and which, if successful, would deprive them of it.”
With no prospects in Europe, Fulton returned to the United States and, in 1810, persuaded Congress to put up $5,000 for a steam-powered submarine that, if he’d lived to complete it, would have represented a revolution in submarine technology. As it was, many problems remained to be solved before the submarine could serve reliably as a naval warship.
PROPULSION AND WEAPONRY: SOLVING THE SUBMARINE
Circumstances had led the submarine’s inventors to envision it as a vehicle to be used primarily as a tool of war. By the end of the 19th century, it could only be imagined as a defensive tactical weapon, to surprise and check a more powerful
enemy in coastal and harbor defense. Its stealth was still widely disdained. In 1901, British Adm. Sir Arthur Wilson declared the submarine “underhand, unfair and damned un-English.”
The two primary weaknesses of early submarines were their unreliable – and dangerous – weaponry and their sluggish means of propulsion. By 1870, the crude “torpedo” had been refined by the Englishman Robert Whitehead, who had developed an unguided, self-propelled torpedo that could be fired from a launching tube. In 1885, the Swedish gun maker Thorsten Nordenfelt introduced a submarine, the Nordenfelt I, fitted with a deck-mounted torpedo tube. Its steam-powered engines made the Nordenfelt I more of a semi-submersible than a submarine; the heat, smoke, and exhaust from combustion rapidly accumulated inside the hull, prompting frequent surfacing.
The French submarine Narval, launched in 1899, was the first to use two different propulsion systems: an oil-fired steam engine on the surface, and an electric motor when submerged. The steam engine served as a dynamo, recharging the electric motor’s batteries – a refinement that would be imitated for decades to come. Steam engines, however, were notoriously unreliable; their
bulky boilers were prone to explosion, and had to be shut down and sealed off from the outside before the submarine could submerge.
The next great submarine innovators set their sights on a more stable and reliable means of propulsion, and the one who stood out from the crowd – who created what military historian Thomas Parrish, in his book The Submarine: A History described as “the world’s first functional, operational, nonexperimental submarine” – was John P. Holland, an Irish schoolmaster who emigrated to the United States in 1873. Holland had studied the Civil War exploits of the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack and the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley – the first combat submarine to sink a warship –and had come to believe, like Fulton, that the submarine would be key to breaking the back of the hated Royal Navy.
The crowning achievement of Holland’s work, the Holland IV, was launched in 1897 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. More than 53 feet long and 10 feet at the widest, it was
Above: Sepia wash by R.G. Skerrett of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which carried out the first successful attack on a warship but was herself sunk in the process.
In 1901, British Adm. Sir Arthur Wilson declared the submarine “underhand, unfair and damned un-English.”
Right: USS Seal, designed by Simon Lake. Lake’s submarines introduced features like the conning tower, diving planes, the control room, the escape trunk, and the rotating, retractable periscope.
propelled on the surface by a recent innovation – the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine – that gave it a surface range of 1,000 miles at a top speed of 8 knots, and could be used to charge an electric motor that could send the vessel 30 miles submerged on a single charge. The submarine was remarkably maneuverable: It dove, for example, under its own power, rather than waiting for ballast tanks to fill and empty. An improved version of the Holland boat became SS-I, the U.S. Navy’s first commissioned submarine, in 1900.
New Jerseyan Simon Lake was developing his own submarine ideas at about the same time. His later boats pioneered the idea of a buoyant, ship-shaped exterior hull encompassing the pressure hull, which, along with his ideas like the conning tower, diving planes, the escape trunk or lockout room for divers, control room, and rotating, retractable periscope, influenced submarine design worldwide.
The submarines and unterseeboote (U-boats) of the world wars were, for the most part, variations on the Holland and Lake designs. One subsequent improvement substituted cleaner-burning, less-volatile diesel engines as power sources, making diesel-electric submarines the standard for decades to come. All relied – even with the invention of the snorkel, which drew air into the diesel engines and charged
the boat’s battery pack by means of a deployable snorkel mast – on air supply for combustion, and operated primarily as surface ships that could submerge for a time when escaping or attacking. This remained the case until the latter years of World War II, when the German Kriegsmarine began producing the Type XXI U-boats or elektroboote. The Type XXI U-boat was designed to spend its entire patrol – ranging up to 17,000 miles – submerged, employing a snorkel to run its diesels or running off its huge battery array, and this operational refinement led to a more streamlined hull configuration and the removal of deck hardware to optimize underwater speeds.
At the turn of the 20th century, it was obvious that the world’s navies had been presented with a formidable weapon. The question was: What to do with it? For the next halfcentury, to some extent, world history was written by the varied answers to this question – and those answers revealed a naval culture and strategic thinking that had not yet caught up to the submarine’s disruptive influence. The British Royal Navy, it turned out, had no idea what a submarine was for; to the Admiralty, it remained an ungentlemanly nuisance, if not a piratical outrage. All World War I combatants, at the
Above: USS Holland, SS-1, the U.S. Navy’s first submarine. John P. Holland’s company was purchased by the company that supplied his batteries, establishing a lineage leading to today’s General Dynamics Electric Boat.
outset, envisioned the role of a navy as a large flotilla that would meet its adversary on the open sea, as at Trafalgar, and set guns blazing until a victor emerged.
The smaller German navy, however, after learning it couldn’t break the Royal Navy’s blockade, promptly switched tactics, unleashing its U-boats to torpedo and sink merchant ships that kept the island nation supplied. This approach was roundly condemned, and prompted debate over whether submariners at war should observe the previous century’s “prize” or “cruiser” rules for wartime ship captures, which required the safe evacuation of crew and passengers before a ship was captured or sunk.
Prize rules were impracticable for submarines. When the German U-20 carried out the most notorious naval attack of the war, sinking the ocean liner RMS Lusitania with a torpedo off the coast of Ireland on
May 7, 1915, it was denounced as a war crime on both sides of the Atlantic: The Lusitania, briefly the largest passenger liner in the world, had been carrying 1,959 passengers and crew, and 1,198 of them – noncombatants all – lost their lives.
The German perspective differed: The ship had also departed New York with more than 173 tons of munitions for the British, making it a necessary target. The Germans’ continued practice of unrestricted submarine warfare, however, would be an important factor in the U.S. decision to enter the war on the Allied side.
Having begun each world war on the defense against superior German submarines, the United Kingdom and its allies ramped
PHOTO
Above: The Type XXI U-boat Wilhelm Bauer, (formerly U-2540), a museum ship. The Type XXI and Type XXIII U-boats were designed to operate primarily underwater. The submarines usually sat much lower in the water, approximately where the dark and light paint meet. They were faster submerged than surfaced.
up efforts to counter the threat, developing technologies and methods that would be known collectively as anti-submarine warfare, (ASW): Underwater microphones, or hydrophones, along with the active sound detection system known as ASDIC, later refined by American researchers into sonar, provided an early but crude means of detection. The depth charge – an explosive with a hydrostatic switch that would detonate it at a specified depth – was first used successfully on March 22, 1916, when HMS Farnborough – a “Q-ship,” or armed merchant vessel designed to bait a U-boat into attacking – sank the German U-68 off the coast of Ireland.
The submarine continued to be a tool whose uses were interpreted differently by World War II combatants. The Imperial Japanese Navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor included a force of five midget submarines, transported on the decks of larger subs. The effectiveness of these submarines during the attack is still debated today, but their use illustrates the rapidly evolving state of submarine warfare at the mid-20th century.
THE NUCLEAR AGE
Questions concerning the ethics of submarine warfare were rendered quaintsounding by the United States’ use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Years later, the man who would become the architect of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear fleet, Hyman G. Rickover, expressed to Congress the dangers of planning for wars fought in the old way: “The lesson of history,” he said, “is that when a war starts every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon it has available.”
In 1955, Rickover’s advocacy helped yield the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN 571), signaling not only a new era in submarine technology and defense doctrine, but also a dramatic shift in Cold War geopolitics. Powered by an inexhaustible supply of steam heated by a nuclear reactor, Nautilus was the first submarine to use a safe and reliable means of air-independent propulsion (AIP) – a technology that had consisted, to date, of experimental closedcycle combustion engines fed by bottled or chemical sources of oxygen that were inherently unsafe.
In theory, the Nautilus could stay submerged indefinitely, but the 1,800 miles it traveled under the Arctic ice in the summer of 1958, from the Bering Strait to the eastern coast of Greenland, was enough to tip the balance of the Cold War. To the Soviets, who, at the time, enjoyed a 450-to-110 advantage over the United States in military submarines – and who had just a year earlier shocked the world
Above: USS Nautilus (SSN 571), the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine.
with the launch of the Sputnik I satellite – the unspoken message of the Nautilus voyage was clear: The United States had a vessel that could travel unchecked to the 3,000-mile-long Murmansk-toVladivostok coastline of the Soviet Union – a prospect made terrifying by the U.S. Navy’s successful submarine launches of Regulus nuclear-armed guided cruise missiles and, in 1960, of the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile. What the U.S. fleet lacked in numbers, it made up in technological superiority; despite Soviet advances, the U.S. Navy enjoyed this advantage through the end of the Cold War – and to the present day.
The ensuing half-century was a race for technological improvements in submarine and ASW design, and yielded innovations such as acoustic dampening techniques; sophisticated sensors, fire-control systems, and electronic support arrays; and unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs, which proved capable of reaching the ocean’s greatest depths. The question that
had never really been resolved during World Wars I and II – What’s a submarine for? –was answered by the Cold War: A nuclear submarine was a powerful deterrent, an indispensable component in the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Its stealth, in addition, provided a platform for SIGINT, or the gathering of intelligence through interception of analog or electronic communication signals. These roles –projecting power and gathering intelligence – have remained at the core of U.S. naval doctrine since the launch of the Nautilus.
THE 21ST CENTURY: THE EMERGING “CYBER SUB” ERA
The post-Cold War era presents a much more complex strategic arena. China’s demonstrated ambition to build a bluewater navy, the re-emergence of Russian military might, and a burst of innovation in information technology are among the factors that have made the future of undersea warfare increasingly uncertain.
Above: USS George Washington (SSBN 598), shown running on the surface during the 1970s. George Washington was the first U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarine, and heralded a new role for the submarine as a strategic platform.
Photo Credit: HII
While the United States’ Virginia-class submarines are the most advanced undersea warships ever built, the gap is arguably closing; as other nations use powerful processing technologies and detection capabilities to extend the range and effectiveness of anti-access/area denial (A2/ AD) capabilities, some are also developing super stealthy non-nuclear submarines: Sweden’s Gotland-class submarines, for example, were the first in the world to feature a Stirling engine AIP system, allowing them to remain underwater for weeks. The German Type 212 submarine is a diesel/fuelcell hybrid that can stay submerged for up to three weeks. Both submarines can operate more quietly than nuclear submarines. Current and future Russian submarines are also advancing toward acoustic parity with U.S. Navy vessels.
At the same time, quantum leaps in sensing and computing power have moved ASW beyond the capabilities of active and passive sonar; it’s widely expected that optical sensors, composed of LED-transmitted beams or lasers, will soon operate at greater range and sensitivity than low-frequency sonars. Passive sensors are capable of monitoring changes in the ocean environment, such as changes in current, radiation, ambient noise, or surface disruptions, that signal the presence of an underwater craft. Getting close to a country’s shoreline or its naval assets, undetected, is likely to become more difficult, posing greater risks for traditional manned submarine operations.
All of which has led some observers, such as Bryan Clark and Timothy A. Walton, of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, to see submarine warfare on the brink of transformation. In “Fighting into the Bastions: Getting Noisier to Sustain the U.S. Undersea Advantage,” published in June 2023, they argue that increasingly expensive and vulnerable manned submarines should, along with improving SSN onboard capabilities, employ a team of UUVs and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as jammers, sensors, and shooters against enemy underwater and surface
vessels, infrastructure, and mines. “To sustain its undersea advantage,” they write, “the Navy should adopt proven approaches from aviation for suppressing, defeating, and circumventing adversary defenses.” These assets could be dropped or launched by aircraft or surface ships as well as from onboard the submarine, forming a network of teammates that could sense, distract, harass, damage, or destroy enemy forces.
When the Navy outlined its “Integrated Undersea Future Strategy” in 2011, it anticipated the need for more versatile “payload tubes” that could launch not only kinetic weapons but also alternative payloads such as recoverable undersea vehicles. Soon afterward, it introduced the expanded Virginia Payload Module (VPM), which will ultimately triple the number of launch tubes on future generations of Virginia-class submarines, beginning with Block V. These tubes will enhance the capabilities of the Virginia class to attack land targets as well as carry long-range antiship missiles and deployable UUVs. While the Navy plans to field Block VI and Block VII Virginia-class submarines, it is also already planning for the next generation of attack submarines: SSN(X). Along with improvements in stealth, sensing, and firepower, the new submarine is planned to have additional tubes dedicated to unmanned vehicles, decoys, and sensors so that it won’t trade off weapons capacity for these payloads.
This new role for the manned submarine – a kind of undersea mothership for the tools and technologies that will engage adversaries up close, and a covert intelligence node receiving and distributing sensor data and teaming with other distributed assets – may be difficult, at first, for traditional submariners to accept. But the sustained mutual deterrence of the Cold War is evidence that the world’s military leaders have learned the lessons their predecessors often failed to grasp during the world wars: Naval warfare is in constant flux, and to underestimate the disruptive potential of the submarine, regardless of the nature of the conflict, is to risk all.
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SSN 796 PLANKOWNERS
From the earliest days of the U.S. Navy, crewmembers who were part of the original commissioning crew of a ship were known as “plankowners,” so named for the wooden planking of the ship’s deck. Traditionally, when the ship was decommissioned, plankowners could appeal for a small piece of the deck planking to keep as a memento. While Navy ships no longer have wooden planking, sailors often receive certificates or other mementos confirming their plankowner status, which remains a special point of pride.
