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USS Jimmy Carter Gets 'Depermed'

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060817-17
Release Date: 8/17/2006 4:02:00 PM

By Master Chief Mass Communication Specialist (AW) Gerald McLain and Chief Mass Communication Specialist (SW/AW) Terry L. Rhedin, Northwest Region Fleet Public Affairs

SILVERDALE, Wash. (NNS) -- USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) underwent a ‘deperm’ at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor's Magnetic Silencing Facility (MSF) Aug. 16 to minimize its magnetic signature and detection by marine mines.

A vessel slowly acquires its own magnetism from the mechanical stress of being used and constant exposure to the Earth’s magnetic field. Deperming, also known as degaussing, is a process to eliminate that magnetism.

“We've done a lot of firsts here," said Cmdr. Dave Honabach, commander of Jimmy Carter. “We came out of our first drydock Monday, and this is the first time it’s been degaussed."

The Bangor MSF has a drive-in “cage” for conducting deperm or signature measurement events. The cage consists of two cable loops below and around the submarine to generate high intensity vertical and horizontal magnetic fields.

"We had to power down and put away a lot of electronic equipment to do this evolution,” said Machinist's Mate (Weapons) 2nd Class (SS) Nick Oshields, from Greenville, S.C. and a plankowner of Jimmy Carter.

Three tugboats and more than 50 linehandlers were on hand to get Jimmy Carter into the cage.

“This is my first day here and my chief told me to go over here and help with line handlers,” said Culinary Specialist Seaman Michael Welch of Boca Raton, Fla. “This is neat.”

Jimmy Carter, commissioned Feb. 19, 2003, is the third of the Seawolf-class of attack submarines and is homeported in Bangor, Wash. Its mission is to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships; intelligence collection, special forces delivery and anti-ship and strike warfare. Seawolf is designed to be exceptionally quiet, fast and well-armed with advanced sensors. It is a multi-mission vessel, capable of deploying to forward ocean areas to search out and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships and to fire missiles in support of other forces.