But first, some context. From early in the Cold War, when nuclear propulsion was married to nuclear weapons, a new species of shark emerged. These were America’s fleet ballistic missile (FBM) subs, nicknamed “boomers” because of what would happen at the far end of their warhead trajectories, and formally designated SSBNs -- for submersible ship, ballistic missile, nuclear powered. These boomers and their dedicated crews, as a team, provided the ultimate survivable strategic deterrent force because of their stealth. They would deploy at sea and “hide with pride,” often for seventy days at a time or more, ready on a moment’s notice to unleash -- almost literally -- the wrath of God on the Soviet Union’s or Red China’s head.

Our SSBNs were true doomsday machines, yet ironically they were also unsurpassed enforcers of peace, in the worldwide confrontation between communism and freedom. Their success was based on unbreakable national will to use them if needed. The lasting proof of their effectiveness is that with thousands of deterrent patrols completed by different United States boomers, not one thermonuclear warhead was ever detonated in anger.

Nowadays, that era back in the Cold War might seem quaint -- scary but simple, precarious yet in key ways predictable -- and some of us could even wax nostalgic. Since the monolithic control of state-sponsored terror by the USSR collapsed more than a decade ago, the world has become more unstable than ever. Suicide bombers might strike anywhere at any time. The expression “weapons of mass destruction” has entered popular speech and debate with a terrible immediacy. American troops are dying abroad at a rate not seen in thirty years, shedding their blood as midwives in the most difficult but most vital birthing process since the Global War on Terror began: transforming dictatorship into democracy in Iraq.

Where, amid all this Fourth Generation guerrilla warfare, are our boomers now? Fourteen of them, all Ohio-class Trident missile subs, continue rotating between deterrent patrols deep underwater and ship maintenance and crew leave and training ashore. Aside from four torpedo tubes and a small supply of torpedoes and decoys for self-defense, their business-end is their array of two dozen vertical missile tubes. Each tube is about eight feet in diameter. Each Trident missile can hold up to eight independently targeted atmospheric re-entry vehicles -- their missiles gain their (classified) range of thousands of miles by traveling part of the way through outer space. That’s up to 192 separate warheads per submarine, each reputed to have a yield of several hundred kilotons. To maximize their availability as the special weapon systems they are, each ship had two complete crews with two captains, Blue and Gold.

And their role, and the quickly perishable skills of their well-practiced crews, continue to be essential: Russia has boomers too, decrepit though some may be, and many of them could wipe out cities and bases in the U.S. without even leaving their piers to submerge. China is expanding its tiny boomer fleet with relentless determination. Other nuclear powers, like India and Pakistan, are eyeing boomers too. Force must be countered with equal force, threat with proportional threat. Sooner or later, many experts predict, America will be dragged into another big shooting war. With nuclear weapons proliferating, and submarines being sold for export at a brisk pace by Germany and Russia and others, the U.S. Navy’s SSBNs had better stay ready for anything.

But four more of these Ohios, the oldest, have begun a substantial evolution into yet another species of steel shark: land-attack SSGNs. The G stands for guided missile, instead of ballistic missile. Guided missile, in modern terms, means cruise missile. This gives a hint -- but barely scratches the surface -- of how what’s inside the hull of these 560-foot-long, 42-foot-diameter, 19,000 tons submerged-displacement ships is evolving to create potent platforms to prosecute flexible, dynamic new forms of war.

Giant Shadow was the name of an exercise held early in 2003 on one of the boomers destined for conversion, USS Florida, ex-SSBN and now SSGN-728. The exercise, and a related, coordinated test, were successful in all respects. Key features of this ground-breaking experimentation provide a taste of what the new SSGNs will be capable of, once they’re fully operational later in this decade:

1. Florida had one of her ballistic missile tubes refitted with a collar that held several Tomahawk cruise missiles instead of a single huge Trident. Two Tomahawks were safely launched this way from Florida while submerged -- a defining moment in submarine history, and a wonderful extension of the existing, frequent launch of Tomahawks from fast-attack SSNs.

2. Navy SEAL teams were deployed from Florida in strength and with equipment that could never fit on a smaller fast-attack sub. They conducted a mock assault on an isolated island where, in the scenario, terrorists were making chemical weapons.

3. Florida launched an unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV), a SEAHORSE belonging to the Naval Oceanographic Office, from another of her modified missile tubes. This UUV is much too big to fit through a torpedo tube -- and consequently, a lot more capable. The SEAHORSE gathered important oceanographic data, searched for possible enemy mines in the exercise zone, and even met the SEALs and brought soil samples from the island back to a surface ship for thorough analysis. In the scenario, the soil sample confirmed the presence of chemical weapons in the hands of terrorists. (In the future, the SEAHORSE or other even larger and long-endurance UUVs will be able to automatically return to nest in their tube aboard the SSGN; service hatches in each tube, once their pressure-proof top hatches are shut, will give full crew access to the UUV’s contents from inside the parent sub.)

4. As a surrogate for the eventual capability of the SSGN conversions to launch unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as Global Hawk, a different UAV, Scan Eagle, was launched and recovered from a nearby shore installation as part of Giant Shadow. It conducted recon and surveillance tasks, and served as a communications relay, of the sort that will be integral to Florida and her sisters in just a few years.

Needless to say, in this exercise the terrorists were overwhelmed and neutralized, their evil plans put to an instant halt.

To get some idea of the warfighting power that Florida and her peer SSGNs will be able to project covertly in different theaters of anti-terror or fourth-generation combat, consider a few statistics: When the SSGN conversions are completed, each of 22 missile tubes will be able to hold 7 Tactical Tomahawk missiles. Each one of these 154 weapons, with a reach of about 1,500 nautical miles, will be able to carry its own specialized type of warhead. The warheads will range from conventional high explosives, to earth penetrator rounds, to cluster minelets, to non-lethal electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and graphite “bombs.” (This rivals the missile loadout of a guided missile cruiser! It’s some twelve times the number of Tomahawks a typical SSN would hold.)

At the same time, every SSGN will carry a complement of 66 SEALs, Marine Recon, Green Berets or Army Rangers, Air Force Special Tactics Teams, or other commandos in comfortable, dedicated living quarters -- along with a mix of two ASDS minisubs or dry-deck shelters held on the SSGN’s superstructure as a dorsal load, to transport the commandos from their host submarine to the shore. Two of the missile tubes will be adapted as swimmer lock-out chambers to access these minisubs and external inflatable-boat and undersea-scooter shelters. Lower portions of the same tubes will have levels for post-mission personnel showers (including nuclear, biological, and chemical monitoring and decontamination gear), for diving rig and weapons washing and drying, and for munitions and ordnance storage. In a pinch, up to 100 SEALs or whomever can be accommodated by more hot-racking (sharing bunks) -- a formidable assemblage of elites.

Space used by navigational devices, no longer needed with the end of the four ships’ boomer missions, will be fitted instead for a Special Operations Forces command and communications center. Mission planning consoles and software, and virtual reality rehearsal facilities, will be included here. There will even be extensive exercise weights and machines so the Special Warfare operators can stay in top physical shape while voyaging through the world’s oceans in their home-away-from-home.

High-data-rate antennas on the submarine, and new underwater acoustic connectivity systems, will allow an SSGN to cooperate in real time with surface amphibious warfare groups -- without compromising any submarine’s greatest asset, its invisibility.

It’s conceivable that eventually an SSGN, with its spacious Battle Management Center, might even serve as the flagship of a decisive tool for the high-tech suppression of Fourth Generation hoodlums and insurgents: a true undersea battle group, with tremendous power-projection ability far beyond the surf and onto the land. Ancient maxims still apply on any battlefield -- concentrate and coordinate your forces, go out there with the element of surprise on your side, and hit the enemy where he lives. The Navy’s SSGN development program is just one example of how the Silent Service, now in its second century, is adapting brilliantly by modifying existing assets and thinking outside the box. These innovative steel sharks will soon cast a giant shadow indeed.

JoeBuff.Com / Joe Buff Inc. Joe Buff, President Dutchess County, New York E-Mail readermail@JoeBuff.Com