On the 28th of May, the United States Navy held a commissioning ceremony for the fast-attack submarine USS Oregon (SSN 793) at the Naval Submarine Base in New London.
The USS Oregon is 377 feet long nuclear submarine, has a beam of 34 feet, is able to dive to depths more than 800 feet, and is able to operate at speeds greater than 25 knots while having a crew of approximately 140 Navy men aboard. Oregon‘s keel was laid down on 8 July 2017.
According to US Navy statement, the design of the Virginia-class submarines, Block IV, have design improvements with the goal of lowering their overall ownership costs.
The United States Navy plans to increase the number of deployments and the periodicity between depot maintenance availabilities by implementing these smaller-scale design adjustments to increase the component-level lifecycle of the submarine. These changes will also increase the number of deployments.
“Blocks I-III Virginia-class 3are planned to undergo four depot maintenance availabilities and conduct 14 deployments. Block IV design changes are intended to reduce planned availabilities by one to three, and increase deployments to 15.
Fast-attack submarines are multi-mission platforms enabling five of the six Navy maritime strategy core capabilities – sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence.
They are designed to excel in anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare and mine warfare. Fast-attack submarines project power ashore with special operations forces and Tomahawk cruise missiles in the prevention or preparation of regional crises.” the statement concludes.
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