Word: seawolfs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Measuring 353 ft. from stem to stern and a potbellied 40 ft. across at the waist, the U.S. Navy's proposed SSN-21 Seawolf-class nuclear attack submarine looks more like a whale with a weight problem than a swift and silent undersea marauder. Yet when the first of a projected 30 Seawolfs sets to sea in 1995, her proponents hope she will live up to her name by proving to be a deadly hunter-killer beneath the waves. "The Seawolf," says the Navy's top submariner, Vice Admiral Bruce DeMars, "will be the supersub of the 21st century...
...more than $1.8 billion apiece, the Seawolfs may turn out to be the superduds of undersea warfare. Last week widely respected Congressional Staff Aide Anthony Battista declared that the Seawolf could not compete with faster, quieter Soviet subs and that the Navy should scrap it. Reaction to this broadside was swift. "We continue to have, by far, the finest submarines in the world," retorted Navy Secretary James Webb...
...considered stronger by virtue of superior technology. Now that the new Soviet subs are equipped with quieter propellers, that superiority is threatened. As a result, the Navy may convince Congress that the number of U.S. subs must be increased sharply. Because the newest submarines under development -- known as the Seawolf class -- will cost more than $1 billion each, it is the U.S. that could pay the highest price for Toshiba's and Kongsberg's dealings...
...below, there was disciplined pandemonium. Klaxons howled as British seamen rushed to red alert stations. Machine guns hammered a deafening staccato and Sea Dart and Seawolf missiles aboard British destroyers and frigates locked on to targets and then whooshed away in clouds of smoke and flame. Land-based Rapier antiaircraft missiles joined the fray, as did the nimble Harriers with their Sidewinder missiles (see box). The attacking Argentine pilots could see the missiles zooming toward them and hear the gunfire, but they continued to press their attacks. Said one military attache: "They are bloody good flyers with plenty of courage...
...British task force has one weapon that would probably have downed the Exocet. The British-built Seawolf, a 6½-ft.-long missile, is capable of intercepting a 4½-in. shell. It might have stopped the Exocet, but within the task force, only the frigates Broadsword and Brilliant are armed with the Seawolf. Instead, the Sheffield carried the Sea Dart, a reliable but older missile, that, so far as is known, was never fired...