SSBN USS Florida gets new life due to conversion from Nukes to other good uses

Since 12-26-02

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From: SS377Bunkmates@aol.com
 Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2002 12:19 PM
 Subject: Sub stuff

   (EXCERPT) By MATTHEW DOLAN, The Virginian-Pilot Last updated: 10:25 PM

   NORFOLK -- The stealthy submarine once stalked the seas with enough nuclear warheads to wage an all-out war with the Soviet Union.

   But when the former ballistic missile sub pulled into its new home Thursday at Norfolk Naval Station, the Florida arrived without its nukes.

   Instead, the stripped-down sub carried the radical promise of a somewhat-conventional mission.

   The Navy will rearm the 560-foot submarine with as many as 154 cruise    missiles and carve out enough space to transport dozens of special operations forces. The mammoth sub, commissioned almost 20 years ago, will also have its core reactor refueled, extending its life another 20 to 25 years.

   The Florida will be the first Ohio-class sub to undergo this conversion, starting in August. The refurbishment, which will take almost three years and cost $800 million, will be done at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.

   When finished in 2007, the Florida's transformation could serve the military's increasing reliance on special forces such as the SEALs. It will carry a mini-sub, called an Advanced SEAL Delivery System, and could pop out SEAL teams carrying rubber inflatable boats through its massive missile tubes.

   It would also enable the Navy to fire Tomahawks from underwater with little chance of detection -- a capability that officials acknowledge is only new for ballistic missile submarines. Attack subs launched more than one-third of all Tomahawks used in Afghanistan.

   ``For a lot less than the cost of a new submarine, you're getting a whole lot of new capabilities,'' Cmdr. David M. Duryea, the Florida's captain, said at a briefing Thursday.

   Until last year, the Florida's 18,000-ton hull was heading from its home in Bangor, Wash., toward the scrap heap of Cold War history.

   A review of the nation's nuclear arms determined that the Navy needed only 14 -- rather than 18 -- ballistic missile subs. The Florida, in other words, was no longer needed.

   But last year, with the election of President Bush, that decision was essentially overt...

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