Ohio sub a new twist on underwater warfare

[unhappycamper]

Stealth sub on display
Ohio is first of a new class.


Ohio sub a new twist on underwater warfare
By Eric Talmadge - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 15, 2008 17:17:15 EST

ABOARD THE USS OHIO, SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN — Capt. Andy Hale has just worked out and is still in a sweaty T-shirt and shorts as he stands in the battle command center. He watches a flat screen display that shows what’s happening outside on the bow and the aft.

His billion-dollar submarine — the Navy’s newest twist on underwater warfare — is hovering just below the surface off the Pacific island of Guam as a submersible disappears into the dark waters, carrying a team of commandos.

The Ohio is the first of a new class of submarine created in a conversion from 1970s vessels by trading nuclear-tipped ICBMs for conventional cruise missiles and a contingent of commandos ready to be launched onto virtually any shore through reworked missile tubes — against conventional forces or terrorists.

The sub’s cruise across the Pacific comes as China builds its submarine fleet into the region’s largest as part of the bulking up of its military. The voyage is the Ohio’s first deployment since the makeover, and Hale is in the odd position of showing the ship off.

It’s odd because the sub is all about stealth.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_seastealth_080216/



uhc comment: His billion dollar sub was converted to hold two billion dollars of Tomahawk (147) cruise missiles.