The Columbia-class will have 16 launch tubes rather than the 24 tubes current on Ohio boats, yet the Columbias will also be about 2-tons larger, according to Navy information. While the Columbia-class is intended to replace the existing fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, the new boats include a number of not-yet-seen technologies as well as different configurations when compared with the Ohio-class. These structures are intended to load into the boat’s modules as construction advances. One key exercise, called tube-and-hull forging, involves building four-packs of missile tubes to assess welding and construction methods. Research, prototyping, science and technology work and initial missile tube construction on Columbia-class submarines have been underway for several years. The now available electrical potential not being used for propulsion could easily be tapped into for other uses,” he writes.
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“With an electric drive submarine, the installed reactor power of the submarine is first converted into electrical power and then delivered to an electric propulsion motor. Using an electric motor optimizes use of installed reactor power in a more efficient way compared with mechanical drive submarines, making more on-board power available for other uses, according to an essay called “Evaluation and Comparison of Electric Propulsion Motors for Submarines." Author Joel Harbour says that on mechanical drive submarine, 80-percent of the total reactor power is used exclusively for propulsion. The use of an electric motor brings other advantages as well, according to an MIT essay written years ago when electric drive was being evaluated for submarine propulsion.
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However, the electricity produced is transferred to an electric motor rather than reduction gears to spin the boat's propellers. Navy developers say that electric drive propulsion technology still relies on a nuclear reactor to generate heat and create steam to power turbines. The “X”-shaped stern will restore maneuverability to submarines as submarine designs progressed from using a propeller to using a propulsor to improve quieting, submarines lost some surface maneuverability, Navy officials explained.
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It is an edge in jeopardy of decreasing as potential adversaries acquire advanced sonar and other new methods of detecting submarines.ĭesigned to be 560-feet– long and house 16 Trident II D5 missiles fired from 44-foot-long missile tubes, Columbia-class submarines will use a quieting X-shaped stern configuration. Quieter propulsion is increasingly taking on importance as the US strives to sustain its undersea technical advantage. “The electric drive system is expected to be quieter (i.e., stealthier) than a mechanical drive system,” a Congressional Research Service report on Columbia-class submarines from last year states. The steam then turns turbines which produce electricity and also propel the ship forward through “reduction gears” which are able to translate the high-speed energy from a turbine into the shaft RPMs needed to move a boat propeller, Navy weapons developers have explained. In today’s Ohio-class submarines, a reactor plant generates heat which creates steam, Navy officials explained. The Columbia class is to be equipped with an electric drive propulsion train, as opposed to the mechanical-drive propulsion train used on other Navy submarines. Therefore, the Columbia is being engineered with the hope of bringing unprecedented levels of quieting technology, weapons, sonar and propulsion, among other things - in part to meet threats such as this. The emerging Chinese JL-3 attracted international attention when it was test launched in November of last year. Knowledge that a Chinese submarine-launched, nuclear armed JL-3 missile is capable of striking portions of the US has naturally sustained, if not heightened, focus on US strategic deterrence efforts.
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As stated by Navy leadership, we continue to look for opportunities to increase the margin for timeliness in construction, test and delivery,” William Couch, spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command, told Warrior Maven. “Construction start for Columbia remains on schedule to begin in 2021, with delivery in 2027 and a first strategic patrol by 2031. The US Navy is planning its first strategic patrol of the emerging nuclear-armed Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine in 2031 - launching a new generation of technically advanced submarines intended to quietly patrol the undersea domain to ensure second-strike ability should the US be hit with a catastrophic nuclear attack.Īs of last Summer, the Navy had issued at least one-fourth of the designs and made major advances in work on systems such as a stealthy "electric drive" propulsion, a new variant of the nuclear-armed Trident II D5 modernization and early missile-tube prototyping for the boats.