Virginia

The Virginia-Class Block III Submarines are a US Navy Powerhouse

Published

2 years ago

May 18, 2022

The Virginia-Class Block III Submarines are a US Navy Powerhouse

The Virginia-Class Block III Submarines, Defined – Designed to be used in each the open-ocean and for littoral missions, which embrace anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and intelligence gathering operations, the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class was developed to exchange the dearer Seawolf-class whereas nonetheless offering a succesful boat to deal with nautical threats from near-peer adversaries within the twenty first century.

The category of fast-attack submarines has been steadily improved and incorporates the most recent stealth, intelligence gathering, and weapons methods expertise. The quite a few improvements have additionally considerably improved their warfighting capabilities – with an emphasis on littoral (close-to-shore) operations.

Since getting into service in 2004, the Virginia-class subs have been capable of help 5 of the U.S. Navy’s six maritime technique core capabilities together with sea management, energy projection, ahead presence, maritime safety and deterrence. It’s in a position to do that by offering a mix of stealth, endurance, mobility, and firepower. The SSNs have a fly-by-wire ship management system that additionally supplies improved shallow-water ship dealing with, whereas subs had been additionally designed to deploy particular operator forces together with Navy SEALS. A reconfigurable torpedo room can accommodate a lot of SOF and all their gear for extended deployments and future off-board payloads.

The Block III Enhancements

Eight submarines – SSN-784 to SSN-791 – make up the Third Block or “Flight.” About 20 p.c of the Block III was redesigned to decrease acquisition prices and improve flexibility.

These “Block III” Virginia-class boats characteristic expertise from the Ohio-class SSGNs, notably the alternative of 12 vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk Land Assault Missiles (TLAMs) with two bigger 87-inch diameter tubes which might be capable of hearth bigger payloads, every housing six TLAMs.

The opposite important enchancment with the Block III Virginia-class subs was with its air-backed sonar sphere to a water-backed Massive Aperture Bow (LAB) array, which changed the spherical predominant sonar array that had been used on all U.S. Navy SSNs since 1960. It was additional meant to assist scale back life-cycle prices whereas offering enhanced passive detection capabilities. The LAB Array options two main elements: a passive array, which was meant to supply improved efficiency, and a medium-frequency lively array.

As well as, the Block III boats additionally had been designed to make the most of transducers from the SSN-21 Seawolf-class that had been developed to final the lifetime of the hull.

The primary submarine of the Block III, USS North Dakota (SSN-784) was laid down in Could 2012, and commissioned in October 2014; whereas the ultimate boat, USS Delaware (SSN-791) was commissioned administratively in April 2020 – and because of the Covid-19 pandemic turned the first-ever U.S. warship commissioned whereas underwater. SSN-791 lastly had an official commissioning ceremony on April 2, 2022, on the Port of Wilmington, Delaware.

(Could 21, 2003) — This conceptual drawing exhibits the brand new Virginia-class assault submarine now beneath building at Normal Dynamics Electrical Boat in Groton, Conn., and Northrop Grumman Newport Information Shipbuilding in Newport Information, Va. The primary ship of this class, USS Virginia (SSN 774) is scheduled to be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2004. U.S. D.O.D. graphic by Ron Stern. (RELEASED)

Every Virginia-class submarine has a 33-year service life, which suggests the present Block III boats may very well be in service properly into the 2040s and past.

Now a Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based author who has contributed to greater than 4 dozen magazines, newspapers and web sites. He repeatedly writes about navy {hardware}, and is the writer of a number of books on navy headgear together with A Gallery of Army Headdress, which is offered on Amazon.com. Peter can also be a Contributing Author for Forbes.

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Virginia

Virginia Remains On Top

Published

6 hours ago

November 1, 2024

Press Room

— By Katie Farthing

Read on for some of the ways Virginia is ranked tops:

Our college life

USA Today rated Charlottesville and Williamsburg as two of the best small college towns in the nation thanks to their rich history, beautiful scenery, and fun daily life.

Our beer

Staunton has the 10th best small town beer scene, according to USA Today.

Our museums

We’re home to the 7th best free museum in the nation, designated by USA Today. The Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax lets visitors write song lyrics and mix mountain music, as well as see live performances.

Our small town food scene

Abingdon may be mini in stature, but it’s high in the small town food scene—number 3 in the country to be exact, according to USA Today.

Our niche neighborhoods

Uniquely charming and underrated, Colonial Village in Arlington is the best place to live, according to Niche. It’s all thanks to a lively nightlife, beautiful parks, highly rated-schools, and a young population of residents.

Our airports

Dulles International Airport is the 11th best in the world and second in the country, according to AirHelp.

This is web-exclusive content from the December 2024 issue.

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Virginia

How Virginia's voter roll purge could impact the election

Published

14 hours ago

October 31, 2024

Press Room

How Virginia's voter roll purge could impact the election

Jude Joffe-Block:

There’s a pattern where people have visited the DMV, and they at some point there must have made a mistake on a form where they identified — they marked a box identifying themselves as noncitizens somewhere in those forms. We’re not really sure how exactly this happens.

But after that visit to the DMV, they got a letter in the mail from their local election official, saying, we think you might not be a citizen. Please affirm your citizenship.

We spoke to a voter, Nadra Wilson, who that letter was sent to the wrong address. It got forwarded. By the time she got it, the deadline had already passed. She was able to re-register. We spoke to another voter, Rina Shaw. She did get the letter in the mail letting her know that she had to affirm her citizenship. And she did send it back.

But, even then, she was still not on the rolls. And she was able to call and sort that out. But all of this does take time. Both of those voters did end up voting early this week, though.

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Virginia

Syracuse football: what to watch for vs Virginia Tech

Published

22 hours ago

October 31, 2024

Press Room

Syracuse football: what to watch for vs Virginia Tech

The Syracuse Orange (5-2, 2-2) welcome the Virginia Tech Hokies (5-3, 3-1)to the Dome on Saturday for a critical ACC match-up. Kickoff is Noon on The CW and here’s what we’re watching for:

Kevin: Protect Kyle

Virginia Tech defensive end Antwaun Powell-Ryland has nine sacks and seventeen hurries on the season and leads a strong Hokies pass rush. Syracuse needs to keep APR from disrupting their passing game so that Kyle McCord can attack a secondary rated the second-worst in coverage by PFF. Will the Orange use screens and draws to force APR to read and react instead of letting him just tee off and attack McCord? If Syracuse can negate APR’s impact they could score enough to win this one.

Mike: Make the Most of Allen

With Yasin Willis doubtful for Saturday’s game, this could be the first time since last season where LeQuint Allen is leaned on as a bell-cow back. How much that affects the offensive gameplan remains to be seen, but it might incite more designed plays as opposed to the RPO package SU has run very frequently. The o-line is struggling to block effectively on option plays lately so to make sure they can get Allen wide lanes to run through, a more traditional approach could work better this week.

Dom: Keeping momentum up for Syracuse’s 12th man

The Orange are once again back in the Dome for the first time in quite a while (September 28 to be exact). Since then, Syracuse’s road trip resulted in two nice wins over UNLV and NC State, then most recently with a bitter blowout loss. Fans will be looking for the Orange to bounce back against an inconsistent but still tough ACC opponent. Considering it’s also alumni weekend, the Dome should have plenty of seats filled and should look to take care of business.

Max: Keep Kyron Drones in the pocket

VT’s quarterback is extremely dangerous in the running game, racking up over 300 rushing yards through eight games, good for 19th in the ACC. The only conference QBs with more rushing yards are Georgia Tech’s Haynes King and Stanford’s Ashton Daniels, who gave the Orange fits on the ground this year. Syracuse’s rush defense still ranks in the top 50 in rush yards allowed per game, and it will need to keep Drones in the pocket to find some success this Saturday.

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What will you be watching for on Saturday?

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