Military Officer - October 2008 - (Page 61) batteries, thereby risking exposure to enemy attack. Their operational range greatly expanded as well — if necessary, they could stay submerged for months. As the Cold War set in and Russia began its military buildup, two major categories of submarines emerged in the U.S.: fast-attack boats, The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) (below) returned to New York Harbor in 1958 after Operation Sunshine, the first transpolar voyage under the Arctic ice. The USS Providence (bottom) was at the North Pole in July 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Nautilus’ pioneering polar transit. The USS Norfolk heads to sea after a routine port visit (right). also known as hunter/killers, and strategic ballistic missile subs, or boomers. Hunter/killers, or SSNs, as their name implies, were tasked with tracking Soviet submarines and destroying them before they could launch their ballistic missiles should war break out. The George Washington-class submarines were the first ballistic missile subs, or SSBNs, deployed during the Cold War. The Ethan Allen class followed, succeeded by the Lafayette/Franklin boats in the 1960s. The trend toward larger submarines peaked in the early 1980s when the Ohio-class boats took to the seas. At 560 feet long and 42 feet wide, they were the largest American subs ever built — so big that two Hunleys could fit side by side in each Ohio missile tube. AN EVOLVING ROLE SSNs were evolving as well, culminating in the Los Angeles class. First launched in 1976, the Los Angeles class now is the most numerous type of submarine in the world. Navy retiree Michael Lane served as a lieutenant on the USS Chicago, a Los Angeles-class fast-attack boat, from 1993-97, at a time when the submarine’s role was changing because of the Soviet Union’s collapse. “When I was at the [U.S.] Naval Academy [in Annapolis, Md.], we were very focused on a conventional adversary,” Lane says. “When the Cold War ended while I was serving in the fleet, our role changed to a more low-intensity conflict against a nonconventional adversary. We were doing a lot more support of special forces, [including] more strike missions and reconnaissance and a lot less hunting other subs and large surface ships.” The end of the Cold War meant fewer SSBNs were needed. Some were refitted to adapt to the current asymmetric warfare model, including the Ohio-class USS Florida, now designated a guided missile submarine (SSGN). “We’ll be operating up close to shore in littoral waters with the ability to do a conventional missile strike and to launch SEALs or other special ops forces,” says the Florida’s Capt. William Traub, USN. “We can carry 154 Tomahawk missiles in a full-up strike-loaded configuration. Fourteen different OCTOBER 2008 PHOTOS: ABOVE, YEOMAN 1ST CLASS J. THOMPSON, USN; CENTER, USN PHOTO COURTESY U.S. NAVY ARCTIC SUBMARINE LABORATORY; TOP, USN PHOTO BY PAUL FARLEY MILITARY OFFICER 61
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