No, I am not talking about the battleship that is in Wilmington. The Navy is finishing up its 4th Virginia Class submarine, the SSN 777, USS North Carolina. Efforts are being made to have the commissioning ceremony in Wilmington in 2008. The problem is that the Cape Fear River is too shallow. When a submarine is surfaced, about 2/3 of it is still under water, which would mean any river or waterway would have to be pretty deep for a surfaced sub to transit. It is possible to bring the sub in but it would not make it to the downtown area. If the North Carolina is commissioned here, it would have to be at the port closest to the Atlantic. As of right now the SSN 777 is the 4th of 6 new Virginia class subs. These are attack subs, but are larger than their predecessors. They are armed to the teeth with Tomahawk Missiles, and MK-48 ADCAP (Advanced Capability) torpedoes making them very deadly to any targets.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment