USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23)

	Career

Ordered:	29 June 1996
Laid down:	5 December 1995
Launched:	5 June 2004
Commissioned:	January 2005 (scheduled)
Fate:	under construction
Homeport:	Bangor, Washington (planned)
colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy ;"\|General Characteristics
Displacement:	7568 tons light, 9137 tons full, 1569 tons dead
Length:	138 meters (453 feet) overall, 128.5 meters (419 feet) waterline
Beam:	12.1 meters (40 feet)
Draft:	10.9 meters (36 feet)
Propulsion:	S9G reactor
Speed:
Complement:	15 officers, 101 men
Armament:

USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), the third and last Seawolf-class submarine, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for former President Jimmy Carter, who served in the US Navy as an officer in the Submarine Service as a nuclear engineer. Very few ships of the United States Navy have been named for a person who was alive at the time of the christening; the list includes Carl Vinson (CVN-70), Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-709), Bob Hope (T-AKR-300), and George H. W. Bush (CVN-77).

The contract to build Carter was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 29 June 1996 and her keel was laid down on 5 December 1995. Original schedules called for Carter to be commissioned in late 2001 or early 2002, but on 10 December 1999 Electric Boat was awarded an US$887 million extension to the Carter contract to modify the boat for highly classified missions and testing of new submarine systems, missions previously carried out by Parche (SSN-683). Carter was christened on 5 June 2004 sponsored by Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter's wife.

Carter is roughly 100 feet longer than the other two ships of her class. This is due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces. The plug features a fairing over a wasp-waist shaped passageway allowing crew to pass between the fore and aft sections of the hull while providing a space to store ROVs and special equipment that may need to launch and recover from the submarine.

In addition, additional maneuvering devices are fitted fore and aft that will allow her to keep station over selected targets in odd currents. Past submarines that were so outfitted were used to place listening devices on undersea cables and listen on communications of foreign countries.

On 24 January 2004, Commander David Bartholomew, Jr., commanding officer of PCU Jimmy Carter was relieved of command because of a "loss of confidence" in his ability "pending further administrative or disciplinary action as appropriate." Captain Robert D. Kelso, deputy chief of staff of Submarine Development Squadron 12 in New London, took temporary command of the PCU until a new commanding officer could be named. Captain Kelso will continue as CO of PCU "Jimmy Carter" through her move to Bangor, Washington.

External links

Seawolf-class submarine

Seawolf | Connecticut | Jimmy Carter

List of United States submarines
List of United States submarine classes