USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career

Ordered:	29 June 1996
Laid down:	1998
Christened:	5 June 2004
Commissioned:	19 February 2005
Status:	Active in service as of 2007
Homeport:	Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor, Washington
General characteristics:
Displacement:	7568 tons light, 12,139 tons full, 1569 tons dead
Length:	138 m (453 ft) overall, 128.5 m (419 ft) waterline
Beam:	12.1 m (40 ft)
Draft:	10.9 m (36 ft)
Propulsion:	S6W reactor
Speed:	25+ knots (46 km/h)
Depth:	320 m
Complement:	15 officers, 126 enlisted
Armament:	8 × 30-inch (762 mm) torpedo tubes; Harpoon missiles, Tomahawk missiles; Mk-48 torpedoes; ability to lay mines
Motto:	Semper Optima ("Always the Best")

USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), the third and last Seawolf-class submarine, is the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for former President Jimmy Carter, who served in the US Navy as an officer in the Submarine Service as a nuclear engineer. Jimmy Carter is one of the few ships of the United States Navy to have been named for a person who was alive at the time of the ship's naming. Jimmy Carter is the only U.S. President to qualify in submarines.

The contract to build Carter was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on June 29, 1996, and her keel was laid down on December 5, 1998. Original schedules called for Carter to be commissioned in late 2001 or early 2002, but on December 10, 1999, Electric Boat was awarded an US$887 million extension to Carter contract to modify the boat for highly classified missions and testing of new submarine systems, missions previously carried out by Parche (SSN-683). Jimmy Carter was christened on June 5, 2004, and sponsored by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

Carter is roughly 100 feet (30 m) longer than the other two ships of her class. This is due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces. The plug features a fairing over a wasp-waist shaped passageway allowing crew to pass between the fore and aft sections of the hull while providing a space to store ROVs and special equipment that may need to launch and recover from the submarine. The MMP may also be used as an underwater splicing chamber for tapping of undersea fiber optic cables. This role was formerly filled by the decommissioned USS Parche (SSN-683).

According to figures published by Electric Boat, the MMP increased Carter's displacement by about 33%, her navigation draft by over a foot (300 mm), and made her louder by two dB at 20 knots (37 km/h). It reduced her speed by two knots (4 km/h).

Carter has additional maneuvering devices fitted fore and aft that will allow her to keep station over selected targets in odd currents. Past submarines that were so outfitted were used to place listening devices on undersea cables and listen on communications of foreign countries.

On 24 January 2004, Commander David Bartholomew, Jr., commanding officer of PCU (Pre-Commissioned Unit) Jimmy Carter was relieved of command because of a "loss of confidence" in his ability "pending further administrative or disciplinary action as appropriate." Captain Robert D. Kelso, deputy chief of staff of Submarine Development Squadron 12 in New London, took temporary command of the PCU until a new commanding officer could be named. Captain Kelso will continue as CO of USS Jimmy Carter through her move to NB Kitsap in Bangor, Washington.

On 19 November 2004, Jimmy Carter completed alpha sea trials, her first voyage in the open seas. On 22 December, Electric Boat delivered Jimmy Carter to the Navy, and she was commissioned 19 February 2005 at the Navy submarine base in Groton.

Jimmy Carter began a transit from Naval Submarine Base New London to its new homeport in Bangor, Washington on 14 October 2005 but was forced to turn back when an unusually high wave caused damage while the submarine was still running on the surface. The damage was quickly repaired and Carter left New London the following day, arriving at Bangor the afternoon of 9 November 2005.