Once the design of the Los Angeles was finalized, there was the matter of selecting a prime contractor. The Navy chose the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corp., despite their having submitted a bid that, in retrospect, was not capable of recouping even the costs of building the first group of twelve boats. Clearly, Electric Boat was "betting on the come"-that they could recover their lost profits from construction of boats beyond the first twelve units. Unfortunately, they did this at a time of relatively high inflation and recession in the economy, and the terms of the contract began to make it impossible for Electric Boat to break even on the first boats. Then a Navy inspection of welds found that a number of the boats had either faulty or missing welds on critical parts of the pressure hulls. This meant a number of the boats had to be completely rebuilt, further increasing costs to Electric Boat. In the end the U.S. Navy had to bail out Electric Boat and pay the costs of the overruns on the Flight I boats. This bailout caused a massive scandal that wound up costing General Dynamics the sole-source contract for the subs as well as causing the indictment of the Electric Boat yard manager on bribery charges. The Navy got the boats, but at a massive cost to the taxpayers.
On the positive side, what the Navy and taxpayers did get were the fastest, quietest, most capable SSNs ever built. On trials, the new boats proved to be all that had been hoped for them. And in 1976, when the Los Angeles was commissioned and sent on patrol, she clearly marked the beginning of a new era of attack boats. Part of this came from the improved sensor suite. For the first time, an integrated sonar suite was included in the design of the boat from the very start. In addition, she was among the first boats to be able to take advantage of the new family of submarine weapons, the Mk 48 torpedo and the UGM-84 Harpoon antiship missile, that were coming on line at that time. Thus what the United States got with the Flight I Los Angeles- class boats was an extremely capable camel.
This might have been the end of the Los Angeles story except for the sudden chill in the Cold War that occurred in the late 1970s. After the downturn in East-West relations, the Navy got an authorization for additional units of the Los Angeles class. And when Ronald Reagan won the presidency in 1980, the construction of additional submarines as part of the "600-ship Navy" clearly meant more Los Angeles-class boats. In these boats were to go some of the improvements that had been planned for the class early on. Starting with the USS Providence (SSN-719), the type designation changed to Flight II. The Flight II boats had a number of improvements, particularly in the area of weapons stowage. One of the problems with U.S. SSNs had been the limited number of weapons (around twenty-four) that could be carried in their torpedo rooms. And with the addition of Harpoon and the new family of UGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles (antiship and land attack versions), it was getting tougher to plan an appropriate weapons load. To get around this, a twelve-tube vertical launch system (VLS) for Tomahawk cruise missiles was added to the forward part of the boat, where room had been left for them in the original design.
Almost two dozen of the Flight II boats were built, and their cruise missile firepower proved quite useful during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The Flight IIs were also the first major group equipped with the new anechoic/decoupling coating designed to reduce the effectiveness of active sonars, as well as to reduce the noise radiated by the boat. Eventually all of the Los Angeles-class boats would be retrofitted with this coating. Another major improvement was that beginning with the Flight II boats, the S6G reactors were fitted with a new high-output reactor core. This allowed the Flight II boats to maintain their high speed (over 35 knots) despite the additional drag imposted by the new coating.
The final evolution of the Los Angeles-class boats was the version known as the Improved Los Angeles (688I). This version of the basic design would be fitted (in addition to the VLS system from the Flight II boats) with the new BSY-1 combat system. This system, which ties all of the boat's weapons and sensors together, was designed to overcome the problems associated with track and target "hand-off" between the sensor and fire control operators. In addition, the 688I was modified to support under-ice operations. This included strengthening the fairwater so that it could be used as a penetration aid through Arctic ice, as well as moving the forward dive planes from the fairwater to the hull, near the bow. Finally, the basic boat design was enhanced with a number of quieting improvements. It has been openly stated that the 688Is are almost ten times quieter than the basic Flight I boats.
All in all, the 688I is the finest SSN roaming the oceans today. While it does have shortcomings, diving depth and habitability being most notable, it still has the best single mix of mobility, weapons, and sensors ever fitted to a submarine. And while the next generation of SSNs will make up for the shortcomings of the Los Angeles class, it will be at an enormous price. In any case, the U.S. Navy had better get used to them-they have ordered a total of sixty-two boats in the class. And with the retirement of the entire Permit class, as well as planned early decommissioning of most of the Sturgeons, it is entirely likely that the year 2000 will see the U.S. Navy operating fifty to sixty Los Angeles-class boats and probably just two or three Seawolfs.
USS Miami: Our Guided Tour Begins
For our guided tour of a 688I, we will profile the USS Miami (SSN-755), the third U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name. The previous Miamis included a double-ended gunboat that fought during the Civil War, and a Cleveland-class light cruiser during World War II. The cruiser Miami (CL-89) earned six battle stars during her service in the Pacific during World War II, and fought in such actions as the Marianas, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The current Miami was built at the Electric Boat Division yard of General Dynamics at Groton. She was launched November 12, 1988, and was commissioned June 30, 1990. She is assigned to SUBDEVRON 12 based at New London. She is some 362 feet long and 33 feet in diameter and has a crew of 13 officers and 120 enlisted men.
