USS North Carolina Submarine Visits Fleet Activities Yokosuka

USS North Carolina Submarine Visits Fleet Activities Yokosuka

The Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS North Carolina (SSN 777) arrived at Fleet Activities Yokosuka Dec. 21 for a routine visit as part of her maiden deployment to the Western Pacific.

With a crew of 133, North Carolina will conduct a multitude of missions and showcase the latest capabilities of the submarine force.

North Carolina is proud to be here in the Western Pacific, making good on our country’s commitment to enhance security, stability, and prosperity in the region,” said Cmdr. Richard Rhinehart, North Carolina’s commanding officer.

North Carolina is the fourth submarine in the Virginia class, the Navy’s newest class of submarine and the first ship designed for the post Cold-war environment. She is designed to operate with stealth, agility and endurance in the world’s littoral regions, as well as the deep oceans. Designed to accomplish a wide variety of missions as required by her operational commanders, her crew recently completed a rigorous training and evaluation cycle to prepare for the full range of possible tasking in the region.

Our crew has put in a lot of long days preparing to bring our boat from Pearl Harbor to the Western Pacific, and do the work our nation requires of us,” said Chief of the Boat Fire Control Technician Master Chief (Submarine Service) Jon Consford. “All the training and preparation have already paid off during recent successful operations in transit. Now we’re all looking forward to some well-deserved time during North Carolina’s first ever visit to Japan.”

For many of the crew members, this is not only their first deployment, but also their first time visiting Japan.

I’m definitely excited about getting to visit Japan,” said Electronics Technician 3rd Class (Submarine Service) Jerry Weaver III. “I’m looking forward to maybe visiting Tokyo and enjoying some authentic sushi.

Measuring more than 350 feet long and weighing more than 7,800 tons when submerged, North Carolina is one of the stealthiest, most technologically advanced submarines in the world. She brings to the region the capability to conduct the full spectrum of potential submarine missions including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike, naval special warfare involving special forces, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and mine warfare.

North Carolina is homeported in Pearl Harbor and was commissioned in 2008. This is the boat’s first deployment, having recently completed a period of extensive follow-on testing and evaluation of her cutting edge sonar, navigation and fire control systems.

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Naval Today Staff, December 23, 2011; Image: navy.mi