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Sea Wolf Submarine Class
The Seawolf-class attack
submarine (SSN) was the intended successor
to the Los Angeles class, ordered at the end
of the Cold War in 1989. At one time, an intended
fleet of 29 submarines was to be built over
a ten-year period, later reduced to twelve.
The end of the Cold War and budget constraints
led to the fleet being cancelled at three
boats in 1995, and led to the design of the
smaller and cheaper Virginia-class submarine.
They are quieter than
the previous Los Angeles class submarines,
larger, faster, have twice as many torpedo
tubes for a total of 8, and carry more weapons,
but were also much more expensive. They were
intended to combat the then-threat of large
numbers of advanced Soviet ballistic-missile
submarines in deep ocean, such as the Typhoon
class. However they also have extensive equipment
for shallow-water operations, including a
floodable silo capable of deploying eight
combat swimmers and their equipment at once.
The boats can also carry up to 50 Tomahawk
cruise missiles for land attack.
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