Page 31: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2024)

at depths up to 1,000 feet. serve as a moored training ship (MTS ton. Some of the 688s were pulled from

Hammerhead consists of a mooring 701) and the Nuclear Power School service at their mid-life point rather than module that plants itself on the bot- in Charleson, S.C. Likewise USS San incur the expense of the costly mid-life tom; the power and sensing modules; Franscisco was decommissioned in refueling. San Francisco was in com- and the business end, which is a Mark 2022 and is now MTS 711 at Charles- mission for more than 41 years, while 54 Lightweight homing torpedo. This is a 600-pound weapon with a range of at least six miles widely used by the U.S.

Navy and others for anti-submarine op- erations. (Anti-ship torpedoes are sev- eral times larger).

General Dynamics Mission Systems was issued a $93 million contract in 2021 to design, test and deliver the “Hammerhead Prototype encapsulated anti-submarine warfare mine system.”

The new Hammerhead differs from

CAPTOR in two important ways. One is that remote control capability, which means it can legally be positioned in peacetime.

The location of air-dropped Quick

Strike mines can be observed, while

Hammerhead can be surreptitiously and strategically placed at choke points, sea lanes, or near enemy submarine ports.

Another new submarine deployed mine is system is the Mining Expend- able Delivery Unmanned Submarine

Asset (MEDUSA).

The Navy’s Unmanned Maritime

Systems Program Of? ce (PMS 406) is developing the system to “address the need for an advanced maritime mining system with long-range offensive min- ing capabilities.”

The Navy has said that the Orca

XLUUV could also deploy MEDUSA to conduct offensive mine warfare.

The Navy has an active tender out to in- dustry to deliver the MEDUSA system.

Submarines

The current attack submarine ? eet in- cludes 26 of the 62 Los Angeles-class submarines built for the Navy and com- missioned between 1976 and 1996. The lead ship in the class, USS Los Angeles (SSN 688) was commissioned Nov. 13, 1976. The newest, USS Cheyene (SSN 773), is now 27 years old.

USS La Jolla (SSN 701) was decom- missioned in 2019, but continues to www.marinetechnologynews.com 31

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