USS Seawolf (SSN-21)

Career
USS Seawolf (SSN-21)
Awarded:	January 9 1989
Laid down:
Launched:	June 24 1995
Commissioned:	July 19 1997
Homeport:	Groton, Connecticut
General Characteristics
Displacement:	7568 tons light, 9137 tons full, 1569 tons dead
Length:	353 ft (108 m)
Beam:	40 ft (12.2 m)
Draft:	36 ft (11.0 m)
Propulsion:	One S6W nuclear reactor
Speed:	35 knots (65 km/h) submerged, 20 knots (37 km/h) silent
Complement:	15 officers and 101 men
Armament:	eight 30 inch (762 mm) torpedo tubes, 50 torpedoes and missiles, or 100 mines

USS Seawolf (SSN-21), the lead ship of her class, is the fourth submarine of the United States Navy named for a solitary fish with strong, prominent teeth and projecting tusks that give it a savage look. The contract to build her was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and Newport News Shipbuilding.

The Seawolf was a product of the Cold War, designed as a replacement to the Los Angeles Class submarines and as a response to the Soviet Akula Class. It is said that the Seawolf is quieter at its tactical speed of 25 knots than a Los Angeles submarine is pierside. Originally 29 were planned for production, but with the end of the Cold war, the cost was judged to be prohibitively high and only 3 were built in favor of the smaller, cheaper, Virginia Class.

See USS Seawolf for other submarines of this name.

Seawolf-class submarine
Seawolf | Connecticut | Jimmy Carter

List of United States submarines
List of United States submarine classes