A new submarine laid in the US

While Russian shipbuilder crying because of their helplessness to change the situation and to obtain money for building Russian fleet, US Naval Force gets new submarines.

A month ago, US shipbuilders launched the building of a new submarine. At the ceremony of laying the new submarine in Newport News, Virginia, US first lady Laura Bush attended, whose initials were put on the first section of the submarine called Texas.

This is the second of the four the most up-to-date submarines of such class, built for US Naval Force. The Texas displacement makes about 7.8 thousand tons. It will be armed with Tomahavk cruise missiles, special arm, and torpedoes. The submarine is being built according to the Stellce technology. It is almost soundless and could move with a speed of 35 knots. The crew of the submarine is 134 people. Texas which should be armed with the most up-to-date following systems is aimed for long reconnaissance of shore objects and for executing operations of Special Force in any spot of the world. The new submarine costs about 1,650,000,000 dollars.

To compare: Russian shipbuilders could build at least four submarines of Gepard class (according to Russian technologies) for this money. Apropos, the Russian state has not paid the full sum for the Gepard submarine to the Severodvinsk shipbuilders. So, probably Americans should build their submarines in the Severodvinsk work, at least to save money of their military budget.

According to numerous publications in US military sites, the building of a similar to Texas, the Virginia submarine was launched in January 1999. By this year, the Newport News work intends to finish the last module and to hand it over to Electric Boat company whose shipyard completes assembling all modules. The submarine is planned to be completely finished in 2004.

Vitaly Bratkov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/09/45478.html