USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) is one of the Seawolf-class submarines, part of the US Navy’s top-secret, high-tech underwater strike assets. Commissioned in 2005, it is uniquely modified for undersea warfare, targeting power and telecom cables, natural resource extraction systems, and other critical seabed infrastructures. They are equipped with the latest and most advanced technology, including a Multi-Mission Platform for deploying special operations forces and remotely operated vehicles. This SSN-23 holds the distinction of undertaking classified tasks that are often signaled by its return to port flying the “skull and crossbones” flag.
The Seawolf-class submarines are, in fact, a sound class of boats in relation to the threat of the Soviet ballistic missile submarines; they are meant to be a successor to the now-aging attack submarines from the Los Angeles class. Although armed with 688 missiles, and even if 29 boats were scheduled to be built in a decade, only three could be launched due to roughly $3 to $3.5 billion per vessel and the changing global geopolitics. Seawolf-class subs are famous for their electronics, which include a 24-foot diameter spherical sonar array, a wide-aperture flank array sonar, and the capability to carry a towed array sonar. These are modularly designed so that weapons and sonar systems can easily be upgraded to keep them “future-proof.”
The USS Jimmy Carter is larger and much more advanced than the other Seawolf-class submarines have ever been—thanks to some quite radical modifications—which now consider it a subclass by itself. The involved allowances added special thrusters to its capability list to go stationary underwater with a 100-foot hull extension, called the MMP. That such equipment would comprise elements of an underwater hangar allows SSN-23 to pack remotely operated vehicles, cable spools, special-operations craft, and other advanced technologies necessary for classified missions. The MMP can also be used to deploy Navy SEALs or other special operations forces.
The actual missions of the USS Jimmy Carter are classified, but its five Battle Efficiency awards and a Presidential Unit Citation each indicate that it has done a lot of work, possibly even dangerous duties. This may include taping fiber-optic communication lines under the sea or intelligence collection. It is therefore always said that USS Jimmy Carter is always the best, hence the motto “Semper Optima”.
Similarly, the submarine fleet of the Indian Navy also presents an undersea warfare imperative. Submarines will have the ability to use these temperature changes and, therefore, differences in water density to hide from active sonars in the super-and subsurface layers. This is because the changes in temperature and salinity in the sea form areas of differing acoustic density wherein sound waves are reflected and self-diminished, rendering detecting a submarine a challenging task. The key part is the thermocline, a temperature and density gradient in the column of water, which plays a vital role in segmenting the ocean into different bathymetric zones based on depth.
They continue to provide a relatively inexpensive way to create an asymmetric threat. A prime example is the recent development by Russia of their SSGN boat based on the Yasen class nuclear attack submarine. Although it is a very large undertaking to field such a sophisticated class of submarines, many states with proven military capabilities, such as India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea see it as important to pursue this avenue. The Swedish Gotland class submarine also had success recently in exercises now arranged with a US carrier group.
Indeed, whatever the extent of the anti-submarine warfare capabilities of the U.S. Navy, undersea operations would seem to be of preeminent importance. All that said, with respect to the first point—demands of undersea dominance that are beyond the scope of submarine-on-submarine warfare—the Russian submarines continue to go undetected despite leading advances in detection technologies such as the SOSUS nets introduced over the GIUK gap. Indeed, the size of the U.S. Navy ASW forces, bigger by several times than the rest of the world’s navies, attests to the complexity and importance of tracking adversary submarines across the globe.
In summary, the USS Jimmy Carter is a prime example of undersea warfare and intelligence and demonstrates the strategic relevance of maintaining a safe and cutting-edge fleet of submarines.