Naval submarine to bear state's name
Secretary of the Navy John Dalton will name a U.S. Navy submarine for the state of Texas, a Pentagon source told the San Antonio Express-News on Thursday.
Dalton confirmed that one of his final acts as secretary of the Navy will be to name the second submarine in the Virginia class of subs for his home state.
"Texans have always been innovators, patriots and leaders, and the crew of USS Texas will showcase those traits, as well as our core values of honor, courage and commitment well into the 21st century," Dalton said.
Former San Antonian Dalton, 56, is a Naval Academy graduate and was sworn into office in 1993. He is the last of President Clinton's original national security team and officially steps down Monday.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, said: "It's an appropriate and fitting tribute to the state of Texas, which has long enjoyed a special and close relationship with our armed forces."
Rodriguez is a member of the House National Security Committee which oversees military affairs.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said: "It is a wonderful honor for our state and very appropriate that the new Virginia class submarine will be named for the state of Texas. Like Texas, itself, the Virginia class sub will always be on the front line in the defense of our country."
Hutchison added, "John Dalton deserves our thanks and appreciation for this honor and for his outstanding service as secretary of the Navy.
"The Navy will miss him."
The fourth ship to bear the name Texas, it will join the Navy fleet in 2005.
The Virginia class of attack submarines surpasses the performance of any current or projected threat submarine.
Virginia class submarines will be able to attack targets ashore with highly accurate Tomahawk cruise missiles and conduct covert long-term surveillance of land areas, lateral waters or other naval forces.
Other missions include anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare, special forces delivery and support, mine delivery and minefield mapping.
With enhanced communications abilities, these submarines also will provide important battle group and joint force support, according to the Pentagon.
The USS Texas will be built at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Newport News, Va.
Thursday, Nov 12, 1998
Nuclear Subs Provide Electricity in Siberia
MOSCOW, Nov. 12, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) Three Russian nuclear submarines stationed in Siberia's extreme east, on Wednesday began providing electricity to a nearby town, an expert said.
The electricity arrives via cable in the town of Viliuchinsk, specialist in the field Elena Nazarova told AFP.
The three submarines form part of Russia's Pacific fleet.
The idea of the war machines providing peacetime electricity has been discussed for many years, but this is the first example of the idea in action.
Kamchatka, and other nearby areas, face bleak winters with long power outages rendering life very difficult for the local populace.
By Deborah Halber
News Office
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1998
An MIT student team's small, self-guiding submarine came in first in the inaugural International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition held August 1-3 in Panama City, FL.
The team walked away with $5,000 in prize money and a chance to have its design spawn future vehicles to explore the oceans and check for underwater hazards without risking human lives.
The event was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). In addition to the cash prize, members of the winning team will be invited to observe on board an AUV research cruise in September in the Gulf of Mexico involving several university groups and the US Naval Oceanographic Office.
The competition's goal was to advance the technology of autonomous underwater vehicles by challenging the next generation of engineers to perform a real-world mission.
Ara Knaian, a senior in electrical engineering, and Seth Newburg, a junior in mechanical engineering, led the MIT team of about 20 people. The other teams came in the following order: Stevens Institute of Technology, the University of Florida and Johns Hopkins University.
"In designing this vehicle, we were inspired by the post-cold-war spirit of efficient, cost-effective engineering exemplified by the Mars Pathfinder," wrote the team in a paper submitted to judges.
"Our vehicle, the ORCA-1, is designed to reliably, repeatedly and efficiently complete the course at a brisk speed under a wide variety of interfering conditions, component failures and irregularities in the course layout. Every component of our vehicle that we did not make ourselves can be mail-ordered and delivered within a day, which allowed a short design cycle and a relatively low budget."
ORCA-1's main hull was made of PVC pipe sealed with commercial expanding test plugs. It contained batteries, electronics and a variety of sensors. There were two main thrusters on either side for turning, and two thrusters to keep it submerged. It had a forward-looking and bottom-looking array of sonar transducers, and was controlled by a 586-based single board computer running the Linux operating system.
The AUVs had to perform all tasks autonomously, with no control, guidance, or communication from a person or from any off-board computer. Each vehicle was limited to 100 kg, or 220 pounds. Points were awarded for design, functionality, presentation and teamwork.
In addition to Mr. Knaian and Mr. Newburg, students on the MIT team included graduate students Holly Gates, Leila M. Hasan, Andrew S. Huang, Frank Lee and Matthew Reynolds, seniors Ahmed Ait-Ghezala, Edward S. Boyden, Sawyer Fuller and Ben Polito; and sophomores Corrina Chase, Francisco J. Delatorre, Jonah Elgart, Matthew D. Hancher, Eric D. Smith and Emily C. Warmann. For more information on the contest, see http://web.mit.edu/rec/orca/orca.html.
Navy Sub Mapping Arctic Ocean Seafloor
By Environmental News Network staff
Web posted Wednesday, July 1, 1998
(ENN) -- A U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine has embarked on a 75-day cruise to map the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean. The sub has been fitted with a civilian sonar system that will provide scientists with three-dimensional images of the unmapped region. The sonars, known together as the Seafloor Characterization and Mapping Pods, have been mounted on the underside of the USS Hawkbill, which is en route to the Arctic for the Navy's fourth annual unclassified science cruise.
Dale Chayes and Jay Ardai, both of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, N.Y., will operate the sonars and oversee acquisition of geophysical data during the cruise. "We can now do mapping in the Arctic that has never been done before," said Chayes, who has spent several years developing SCAMP in anticipation of the cruise. "The sub can go farther and faster under the ice than any icebreakers can go through it. And because the sub is so much quieter and more stable, we can get much higher quality sonar data that will reveal a picture of the Arctic seafloor that we have never had before."
SCMAP is made of two sonar mapping systems designed to take advantage of the submarine's unique characteristics. One is a swath mapping system, which measures seafloor depths across a zone extending up to about six miles on either side of the advancing submarine. These measurements can be stitched together to create continuous, large-scale maps of the ocean floor. The swath mapping system also collects backscatter data, which illuminates seafloor textures such as scarps and lava flows. SCAMP's other sonar is a sub-bottom profiling system that will profile structures down to about 100 meters below the seafloor.
Lamont geophysicists will use SCAMP data to obtain 3-D images of seafloor features, such as the Gakkel Ridge, a spreading center between North American and Eurasian tectonic plates where new seafloor is created.
"Data collected will help us to understand how oceanic crust is formed at spreading centers and the processes by which magma is brought to the surface," said Dr. James Cochran.
The SCAMP system attached to the sub will allow scientists to "collect data like mowing the lawn," said Dr. Bernard Coakley, who took part in the first to Scientific Ice Expedition cruises in 1993 and 1995. The Hawkbill will also collect water samples, which will be used by two Lamont geochemists, William Smethie and Peter Schlosser, to study Arctic Ocean circulation.
The Arctic Ocean plays an important, but still poorly understood, role in regulating the Earth's climate. Smethie uses chlorofluorocarbons and Schlosser uses isotopes of hydrogen and helium to trace the direction and speed of waters circulating through the ocean.
The Akula Threat -1997
Russian Akula submarines have been spotted near the Bangor Trident Base. They were in a position where they could and were monitoring Trident activity there. The Russian government denies the Akula/s were there.
Submarine struggle -July 1996
The submarine's land-attack potential is no longer the preserve of powerful navies. IDR looks into the grapple for submarine supremacy, where fewer vessels are acquired but greater capability is achieved.
Torpedoes by the Kilo -7 January 1995
Iran's "Kilo" class submarines have demonstrated their ability to fire homing torpedoes, raising concerns in the US DoD.
Naval growth threat -7 January 1995
The USA believes the Chinese Navy will deploy follow-on classes to their Xia and Han nuclear submarines next century.
Peter The Great Returns -10 July 1996
The Russian Navy will commission its fourth Kirov class battle cruiser, named Pyotr Veleki -Peter the Great - next year and will start sea trials of an 'Oscar II' cruise missile submarine and an 'Akula' fleet submarine. Surface ship building is almost at a halt, although submarines are still under construction.
Nordic Submarine Mooted -11 February 1995
Sweden, which has just launched the world's most advanced non- nuclear submarine using air-independant technology, could work with Norway and Denmark to develop submarines.
FIRST OF TWO NEW KILO SUBMARINES COMMISSIONS FOR INDIA
In a burst of submarine activity at St Petersburg of a type not seen for some years, a Kilo class submarine has sailed for China and another has been commissioned for India. At the same time, the keel has at last been laid at Admiralty Yard for the first Russian Lada class, which is the next generation of diesel-powered conventional submarine for the Russian Navy and is also available for export.
The Indian boat is the Sindhurakshak and was commissioned on 24 December 1997. It was part of an order for two more of the Kilo class confirmed as recently as May last year. The first was delivered so quickly because the submarine was completed some time ago for the Russian Navy, which then had no funds to purchase it. This is a Type 877 but it remains probable that the second, which is now building, is of the more modern Type 636.
THIRD RUSSIAN-BUILT SUBMARINE TRANSFERS TO CHINA
Two months later than expected, the third Kilo class submarine sailed from the Baltic on board a transporter ship in the second week of November. The submarine had been working up in the Russian Baltic exercise areas since last July, after being built at Nizhny Novgorod as part of an order for four placed in mid-1993.
The fourth and last of this order has been launched and is expected to commission in the next three months. This second pair are of the more modern Type 636, although the differences in capabilities between the later Russian Type 877 and the new 636's are often exaggerated .
Basically the Kilo class is an early 1970's design ,which is robust, has a large reserve of buoyancy and has had some updating of sensors and fire-control systems. Nonetheless, it remains relatively agricultural by the standards of modern western diesel submarine designs. This does not make it any less formidable as a threat to surface shipping.