SSGN Conversion Will Boost Offensive Power of the Fleet

Sea Power, Jul 2004 by Wegner, Brian J

A single Ohio-class guided-missile submarine (SSGN) will be armed with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. That is more cruise missiles than are now carried by an entire carrier strike group, and almost 20 percent of the 800 Tomahawks fired by a cadre of coalition submarines and surface ships during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Navy is obtaining four SSGNs, a step that will substantially increase the offensive power of the fleet.

Four Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines are being converted to the SSGN configuration. The conversion program was just getting started in June 2002 when Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark introduced his Sea Power 21 strategic plan. The four Ohio-class SSGNs provide key capabilities for the Sea Power 21 pillars of Sea Strike and Sea Basing, while serving as models of the supporting processes of Sea Trial and Sea Enterprise.

The conversion of the four ballistic-missile submarines to SSGNs was prompted by the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review, which determined the nation needed 14 of its 18 commissioned ballistic-missile submarines to meet its strategic deterrent requirements. Rather than decommission the four oldest boats, USS Ohio, USS Michigan, USS Florida and USS Georgia, the Navy decided to convert them into stealthy guided-missile strike and Special Operations Forces (SOF) platforms. Each is still a highly capable submarine with 20-plus years of operational life remaining. It is this conversion process that makes the SSGN program a model Sea Power 21 initiative.

Sea Strike calls for projecting precise and persistent offensive power. SSGNs will be major contributors to Sea Strike by virtue of their significant payload, endurance and persistent in-theater presence, due in part to their large arsenals of Tomahawk missiles.

Sea Strike also aims to enhance the warfighting contribution of Marines and SOF. The SSGN has unequalled capability to conduct sustained, stealthy operations with embarked SOF and their specialized equipment. Missile tubes one and two are being converted into large lock-in/lock-out chambers that will double as the mating sites for Advanced SEAL Delivery Systems, Dry-Deck Shelters or one of each.

SSGNs may also be a key research and development asset. Since each of the 22 available missile tubes is about the size of a tractor trailer, the Navy has an unprecedented opportunity to test and evaluate future submarine payloads. Possible payloads could include new effects-based weapons, distributed sensors and networks, unmanned underwater vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles. With sound engineering and some imagination, a staggering array of unmanned sub-surface, surface and airborne systems, weapons, sensors and specialized SOF equipment could be tested.

The SSGN captures several key attributes of Sea Basing, which will extend the Navy's reach through the use of mobile, self-sufficient bases in forward arenas. It will maximize its forward presence by retaining the two-crew concept used on SSBNs, while maximizing in-theater time by conducting some crew turnovers at forward-deployed sites. This will lead to 14 years of forward-deployed operations out of 20 years of remaining life.

SSGN also will be an unrivalled submarine command-and-control asset. The SSGN conversion installs equipment and operating stations to monitor and control operations of the Lockout Chambers, Advanced SEAL Delivery Systems or Dry-Deck Shelters. They also can be used for displays, storage and local area network drops, and communications equipment needed to plan and supervise strike and SOF operations. The capability is here to conduct the SSGN's own operations, and to embark command elements enabling the SSGN to serve as a Launch Area Coordinator, or to provide robust command and control for SOF operations.

The SSGN program epitomizes the streamlined, efficient process envisioned in Sea Enterprise to field capabilities quickly and at lower cost. The SSGN conversion leverages prior investments in the Ohio-class submarines themselves, and in their supporting infrastructure.

Moreover, SSGN conversion is an example of reducing cycle time in the procurement of a major system. In three years, this program progressed from the concept stage to two submarines undergoing conversion. By fiscal year 2007, all four SSGNs will have completed conversion, with the lead boat, USS Ohio, having attained initial operating capability.

The SSGN program takes full advantage of capabilities resident at General Dynamics Electric Boat, the original designer and shipbuilder for the Ohio-class SSBNs, and at the naval shipyards to complete the conversions in minimum time. Electric Boat produced the detail design for the SSGN, procures long-lead-time material, performs manufacturing and conversion planning, and is providing direct labor and management oversight as the conversion execution manager.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Va., and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash., are performing refueling overhauls on two submarines each, with the conversion work beginning about halfway through each submarine's overhaul - reducing overall time in drydock and saving the Navy money. The naval shipyards also provide selected services for the conversion effort, leveraging existing facilities and on-site capabilities.