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Bowman Cites Virginia's Alpha Trials as a Success

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040803-04 Release Date: 8/3/2004 2:54:00 PM

By Journalist 3rd Class Steven Feller, Commander, Navy Region Northeast Public Affairs

GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- PCU Virginia (SSN 774) returned to General Dynamics' Electric Boat Shipyard here July 30 after successfully completing its Alpha Sea Trials (AST).

All ships complete an AST, but for submarines, the AST is the first underway designated for propulsion plant testing and tightness dive testing. Virginia's AST was special because it was the first for a new class of submarine. Adm. Frank L. "Skip" Bowman, director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion, embarked Virginia for the AST and was pleased with what he saw.

"Every expectation of mine from the propulsion plant and from the ship was met," said Bowman. "As you can see from the broom that is hoisted up on the top of the sail, this sea trial was an absolute success - a clean sweep."

During the previous three days, Virginia and her crew were pushed through a gauntlet of trials and tests associated with "taking a ship of this complexity underwater for the first time." Bowman noted that the first dive was in itself an event, requiring Virginia to transition from "running at its maximum power at a flank bell, and reversing that ahead flank to an astern bell as rapidly as possible, to see if the sub and crew can take that kind of stressful action."

Virginia performed three emergency blows during the AST. The ship also dove to test depth and maximum operating depth three times. The Virginia crew shut down the reactor and did crew casualty training twice, demonstrating the capability to rapidly restore the reactor and thus, electrical power and propulsion to the ship.

Bowman lauded Virginia Commanding Officer Capt. Dave Kern and his crew for their performance.

"I was almost blown away by the spirit and enthusiasm by both the shipyard people aboard and the crew in tackling some very difficult challenges, and coming through them with hardly any sleep," said Kern. "The training they've gone through in the past couple of years showed during these last three days."

Kern also praised his crew, saying their professionalism and sense of accomplishment stretches farther than the previous few days.

"My crew performed greatly and not just in these last three days, but over the last several months," said Kern. "Most of these crew members have worked day and night to prepare for sea, and they've performed flawlessly along with the ship."

According to Bowman, the propulsion plant also performed flawlessly, noting that Virginia's power plant is more user-friendly than those on other classes of submarine.

"Automation that has not been incorporated into propulsion plants before is incorporated into this one, giving us the ability to reduce watchstanding requirements," he said. "The plant is very resilient - more resilient than previous plants. It's also built in a modular fashion that makes it quieter."

"It incorporates a level of energy density never seen before on submarines, taking up less room. Its completely new design brings the submarine force into the 21st century with electronics, microprocessing, and digital analysis and displays that have not been used before to this extent on submarines," he continued.

Bowman noted the Virginia-class submarine represents the first of the Navy's major combatants designed specifically for missions after the Cold War.

"It's the first ship designed specifically from the keel up to carry special warfare forces," he said. "It's the first ship to worry about non-acoustic means of detection, so that we are ready to operate in shallow waters, more so than the previous class ships that went before. It is the ship for the 21st century."