Spec ops have new home at seaSub converted from nuclear threat to SEAL-delivering strategic forceBy Andrew ScutroTimes staff writerAboard the USS Ohio — Ohio lurks 60 miles inside Washington.
Submerged at periscope depth in 40 fathoms of water, the Navy’s newly converted guided-missile submarine stalks Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, from deep inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Invisible, Ohio’s advantage is obvious.
Peeping at Whidbey Island through his periscope from 12,000 yards offshore, Ohio skipper Cmdr. Michael Cockey can make out the island bluffs beyond a stormy haze.
Modern submarines, including massive fleet ballistic-missile submarines, have long been able to sneak close to shorelines undetected. However, the Ohio and three former boomers now under conversion deliver additional capability.
They can launch people and Tomahawk missiles, not nuclear warheads.
“The added benefit is we can bring Special Forces with us, and they can carry out strikes with the intelligence we get,” Cockey said.
In a real-world scenario, Cockey and his crew can stay underwater for about as long as he wants, conducting long-term surveillance missions, intercepting signal traffic from shore and waiting for targets to form. They can also launch a clandestine SEAL reconnaissance mission or a missile strike. Or both.
Cockey’s boss, Squadron 19 commodore Capt. Derek Hesse, is also in the control room, checking the ship’s position and reveling in the possibilities. He knows a lethal, watchful warship has arrived, with no one above the waves any wiser.
“Other surface ships can’t go in there that close to hostile countries,” Hesse said.
Rejoining the fleet
On Feb. 7, Ohio formally returns to service after being reconfigured from a ballistic-missile submarine to an SSGN. After a series of evaluations and further modifications, it will deploy in late 2007.
The first of the Ohio-class boomers, the 25-year-old boat was set to be scrapped. Now, Ohio and the next three boats in the class — Michigan, Florida and Georgia — will see another 20 years of service as special operations/guided-missile strike boats.
The Navy plans to spend $4 billion to convert all four boats. The last in line, Georgia, returns to the fleet in September 2007.
They will be forward deployed and manned with alternating blue and gold crews of 15 officers and 139 enlisted sailors. An O-6 will captain the boat.
Ohio will work out of Guam and Florida will be forward-based in Diego Garcia in 2008, according to current plans.
Rear Adm. Frank Drennan commands Submarine Group 9 at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.
“They’ll be at sea a majority of the time because that’s where they belong,” Drennan said during a media embark Jan. 29.
Under the current deployment schedule, ships will spend 100 days in a U.S. home port, then deploy for 73-day cruises with 21-day upkeep periods at the forward base between each cruise.
“When it leaves, it’s gone almost a year,” Drennan said.
With the Navy pushing surface combatants further into the world’s “green water” coastal areas with vessels like the Littoral Combat Ship, the new SSGNs will also operate close to the beach. It’s a dramatic shift from their former duty: poised for nuclear apocalypse in the dark depths of the world’s oceans.
Reconfiguring for SEALs
At the heart of SSGN’s newness is the conversion of its 24 Trident missile tubes. The two tubes closest to the sail have been reconfigured as lock-in/lock-out chambers for special operations forces.
The other 22 tubes can be loaded with seven Tomahawk land-attack missiles apiece. The maximum missile strike load: 154.
If a larger special operations mission is anticipated, 15 tubes can be packed with 105 Tomahawks and the unarmed tubes can be used to stow SEAL ordnance and gear.
And depending on the configuration, swimmers can either pass straight through the two lockout hatches into the sea, up through the same hatches into a dry deck shelter or, if it gets fully developed, into a minisub known as an Advanced SEAL Delivery System.
During Ohio’s two-year conversion, the landing deck was flared out four feet on each side to accommodate two dry deck shelters or ASDS.
Standing at the top of a converted tube, with the hatch above the only barrier to the sea, Cmdr. Claude Lim looks like he’s standing inside a silo with shower heads. Lim, a SEAL, comes from Naval Special Warfare Group 3 in San Diego, which specializes in operating from the current model minisub.
The 30-inch hatch atop the tube allows the SEALs to push out their combat rubber raiding craft after the lockout chamber has been flooded down.
The shower heads and faucets built into the side of the converted tube allow returning swimmers to rinse their gear of saltwater and then hang it on a powerful dryer down below.
Inside the missile tube compartment, there’s berthing for 66 special operators in addition to ship’s crew. In a pinch, the SSGN can haul 105 special operators with extra gear lockers and workout spaces for embarked SEALs.
“This is a premier platform for clandestine operators,” Lim said.
Room to operate
While the conversion from ballistic missiles creates room in the tubes themselves, it also creates the rarest commodity in a submarine: open space.
Gone are the bulky inertial navigation machines used to guide the nuclear missiles. The suddenly freed-up space behind the control room now accommodates a Battle Management Center with room for a 30-man mission planning staff.
Using the latest integrated systems available in the fleet, the mission staff can provide, receive and monitor information in real time around the globe, officials say.
And when the command and control system is fully installed, the SSGN can act as a submerged command post.
Air Force, Army and Marine special operations forces have shown interest in operating from the SSGN. The presence of a high-flying Air Force officer is perhaps the most unusual.
Capt. Mark McGill, a special tactics officer with the 22nd Special Tactics Squadron based at McChord Air Force Base in Washington, said his troops can use Ohio as a clandestine forward air control and reconnaissance platform. Air Force special operators may also use SSGN for pilot recovery missions. McGill said they’ve even tested hand-launched UAVs to gather targeting data.
“In a nutshell, we can do that, have it and blast it back on satcomm to an air operations center,” he said.
Navy Capt. Dave DiOrio works as the program director for SSGN at Submarine Force Headquarters in Norfolk, Va.
The potential of SSGN is just being tapped, he said.
Already, testing is underway on how Ohio might leverage unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles as well as several new forms of ordnance, including the Littoral Warfare Weapon.
The LWW — essentially a sub-launched AIM-9 Sidewinder missile — would be used defensively against anti-submarine aircraft and small warships. The universal encapsulation system to get the missile or other payload through the water to the surface is still in the works.
“Getting it out of the sub is the final step we’re working on,” he said.
DiOrio said the SSGNs will all see more upgrades, such as night vision and recording capabilities for periscopes.
For all the attention being paid to the super-fast LCS, of which the Navy plans an eventual fleet of 55, the converted Cold War-era SSGN will be ready to deploy at the end of next year.
And it will be headed straight for the shallow water.
“This is the first vessel to go into the littorals and do something worthwhile for the Navy,” DiOrio said. “SSGN working in concert with LCS brings a formidable force into the littoral to fight the war on terror.”