USS CONNECTICUT – A PROFILE OF THE 'ARSENAL OF THE NATION'

The Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut is seen above in this undated file photo arriving at Naval Base Kitsap after completing a deployment to the western Pacific region

Since the nation’s independence in 1776, the USS Connecticut is the fifth active American navy ship to be named after the Constitution State.

It is the second of the Navy’s three Seawolf-class fast-attack nuclear-powered submarines.

In the early 1980s, when the US was still engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the Pentagon planned to build a fleet of 29 Seawolf-class ships.

But the collapse of the USSR, the end of the Cold War, and cuts to the military’s budget led planners to scale down the size of the fleet to 12 vessels – and then just three. 

In 1991, the Groton, Connecticut-based company General Dynamics Corporation was awarded the contract to build the Connecticut.

More than a year later, the ship’s keel was laid down.

The USS Connecticut was launched on September 1, 1997. It was commissioned into service on December 11, 1998.

At $6billion, the USS Connecticut and its sister vessel, the USS Jimmy Carter, which is also a Seawolf-class submarine, are the most expensive attack subs ever built.

The high costs reflect its considerable performance capability in the field of intelligence gathering, particularly in the Arctic Ocean under thick ice.

The Connecticut and other Seawolf-class submarines take part in the biennial ICEX drills staged by the Navy.

The Arctic region is considered one of growing strategic importance given the vast amounts of untapped natural resources that lie beneath the surface of the ocean as well as the shipping routes that are now opening up thanks to climate change. 

Motto: ‘Arsenal of the Nation’ 

Class and type: Seawolf-class submarine

Complement: 15 officers, 101 enlisted 

Displacement: 7,568 tons light, 9,137 tons full, 1,569 tons dead

Length: 107.5 meters (353 feet) overall, 107.5 meters (353 feet) waterline

Beam: 12.1 meters (40 feet)

Draft: 10.9 meters (36 feet)

Propulsion: One S6W reactor

Armament: Eight 26-inch torpedo tubes, 40 torpedoes and missiles, or 100 mines