Inside the World's Most Advanced Submarine

Many of you will have seen links to the recent article about a visit to USS North Carolina (SSN-777) by CNET News staff writer Daniel Terdiman. I wanted to post a few pictures from the article, along with some excerpts from the article.

If you haven't had a chance to read the whole article, you can see it (along with more pictures and some videos) at Daniel Terdiman's Geek Gestalt blog on the CNET website. You can also see a slightly different version on the Australian ZDNet website.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, I've included the captions from the article, with some of my comments in parenthesis.

Dave Schueler
USSVI Seattle Base Newsletter Editor

Welcome aboard USS North Carolina.

"Seen here is a zoomed in image of the classic submarine Nautilus, at the museum that is adjacent to the New London Submarine Base. The Nautilus is a full mile away from the North Carolina, meaning that the image on this screen--which is very crisp--is extremely magnified.
In the lower right quadrant of the screen, the slim wedge represents how much of the 360- degree view from the North Carolina the periscope is looking at. The more zoomed the image, the narrower the wedge."

"This is a view of the pilots' station, with two seats and a full set of controls for the pilot and the co-pilot."

"This screen showcases all the digital trim controls, those that are used to bring the submarine down or up in the water, based on how much air is in the ballast tank." (This isn't quite the old BCP I was used to.)

"Commander Schlauder (North Carolina's Commanding Officer) looks at two of the North Carolina's weapons, a Mark 48 torpedo (left) and a Tomahawk missile (in the sheath on the right), which are being held in cradles. The submarine can carry as many as a dozen torpedoes at any time (officially, the Virgina class can carry up to 26 weapons in the torpedo room, in addition to the 12 Tomahawk missiles carried in vertical launch tubes), but if necessary, the torpedo room can be largely cleared out--it is mostly modular--and a Special Forces crew of as many as 36 can be housed here."

"Most of the crew stay in six bunk rooms, and up to eight crew members can share those rooms." (I haven't seen the berthing on a Virginia class sub, but I think there are at least 12 bunks in this picture.)

"The crew's mess on the North Carolina. Each table in the mess is adorned with sports homages to one of the five major North Carolina universities."

"This is the North Carolina's diesel engine, which is an emergency generator of power if the nuclear reactor stops working and the battery banks aren't producing enough power as backup."