Multimission-Capable Sub Readies for Full Operation

NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE KINGS BAY, Ga. (NNS) -- The guided-missile submarine USS Florida (SSGN 728) arrived at its new home of Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., April 11, completing the sub’s three-year refueling and conversion at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va.

Florida is the second Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine the Navy has reconfigured, replacing its 24 Trident missiles with nearly 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, switching the boat from a nuclear deterrent to a source of more conventional firepower in the global war on terrorism.

“We’ve taken the Trident submarine, which is a well proven design, and we’ve done great things with it,” said Florida’s Commanding Officer, Cmdr. Gregory Ott. “It’s a very flexible platform. We haven’t really built it just for today’s threat. We’ve built it so that it can be modified for whatever’s over the horizon that we can’t imagine.”

The first in the class, the guided-missile submarine USS Ohio (SSGN 726) returned to the fleet in February, and two additional subs, USS Michigan (SSGN 727) and USS Georgia (SSGN 729), are currently undergoing conversion.

The Navy's existing fleet of attack submarines had already been outfitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles, a staple of naval operations in the past used during the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Although effective, the attack subs could only carry a small number of missiles, which meant several vessels were needed to conduct major cruise missile strikes.

“When we had submarines in the Gulf,” said Florida’s Chief of the Boat, Command Master Chief (SS) Harold Miller, “it’s a huge waterspace management issue to have multiple submarines in this area. If we had two of the [SSGNs] there, we could have launched more missiles and still not had the waterspace issue that we had.”

Changing to conventional weapons isn’t all Florida did while she went through the conversion. Several areas of space aboard were reconfigured for increased littoral combat capability.

The newly-upgraded SSGNs can now fully house “at least 66 or more SEALs (Sea, Air, Land),” said Ott. “There are no platforms right now other than the SSGN that are dedicated to carrying special forces. And it’s not just the personnel that we can carry – we can carry all of their equipment, and the ship has the capability to deliver the SEALs covertly.”

According to Ott, Florida’s firepower, mixed with a greater capacity to move SEALs and their equipment into mission essential areas, increases the Navy’s ability to engage the enemy on a whole new level.

“The importance of having nobody know you’re there can’t be overstated,” said Ott. “The bottom line is, if you put a surface ship off the coast or there is knowledge of the Navy’s presence, people don’t do the same things. They go hide when they know you’re there. So having the submarine there and that whole stealth piece, is very important.”

The boat plans to have its Return to the Fleet ceremony in May at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla., and then return to King’s Bay to begin its service to the fleet.

Lots of fire power slow and not very maneuverable compared to modern attack subs. I hope she's quiet at least! Smooth sailing to you and your crew, Florida

She should be exceedingly quiet .....after all the Ohio's have been responsible with carrying the most potent facet of the United State's nuclear triad, and thus they had to be made quiet enough so as not to attract half of the Soviet attack boats during the Cold War. Thus this 'cross-dressing' Ohio is going to be quieter than quiet, and there is really no way for our potential enemies to get this baby.

What I am wondering is whatever happened to the proposal to convert some Trident SLBMs into conventional warhead carriers? I remember some plan to have some of these 'born-again' Ohios carry SLBMs that had conventional warheads instead of nuclear MIRVs. What happened to that plan?

And if it is still on I wonder if we would have to be notifying the Russians whenever we wanted to fire one at, say, Iran. After all, the only difference from an actual nuclear SLBM launch would be the fact that the warhead was conventional not nuclear, thus it would eerily seem (to say some person in Russia) like a launch. And the fact that we notify them for everything that may seem 'nuclear' (for example the Russians were notified about the proposed test where we were detonating that 700 ton explosive underground) makes me wonder if we would have to tell the Russians that we were about to launch an SLBM from one of our born-again Boomers. Anyone know (Jeff Head?) After all, if we are telling the Russians about underground tests of conventional explosives (although I still think that test is to see the effects of a bunker-busting mini-nuke), then we would probably have to tell them about launching an actual SLBM (even a conventional one) from a 'former' Boomer.

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