Seawolf: The Best U.S. Navy Submarine Ever?
Story by Kris Osborn • Yesterday 5:58 PM
The somewhat abrupt end to the Cold War generated a quick and potentially premature cancellation of the highly-capable Seawolf-class attack submarines initially slated to replace the existing fleet of Los Angeles-class boats.
Although the service initially planned to build 29 Seawolf submarines, only three were actually built before the program came to halt due to budget constraints in the mid-1990s. The early termination of the Seawolf-class submarines inspired the birth of the now fast-progressing Virginia-class submarines, yet the Seawolfs themselves were engineered to be a paradigm-changing “jump” forward in capability beyond the Los Angeles submarines.
The Seawolf was larger than the Virginia-class boats and considered expensive at $3 billion per unit, yet its mission was clearly defined. Seawolfs were designed to, among other things, hunt and potentially destroy nuclear-armed Soviet Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarines, according to Harpoondatabases.com.
The Seawolfs were also built to track Soviet Akula-class attack submarines in “deep ocean” environments, according to research in the US Naval Institute's Guide to Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/seawolf-the-best-u-s-navy-submarine-ever/ar-AA19UdHZ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=697335bc3c534fe3a71ef8a90a427cd6&ei=16
