EB has endured because innovation and creativity arc valued and remain a way of life as part of the company’s inherent culture.
#Virginia class submarine berthing free#
Without a culture of free thinking, an organization won’t produce innovative designs or solutions just because it is directed to do so. For more than a century, EB designs have set trends or shifted paradigms perhaps not an unexpected outcome for a company formed by a group of people who had confidence in a small submersible vessel that was little more than a curiosity to naval officers at the time.Ĭulture and Organization Matter – Management consultants often say that culture trumps strategy, meaning that an organization is more likely to go where its culture guides it than where management directs. But there is a unique innovative spirit at EB that is based in the company’s culture. While significantly more capable than NAUTILUS, this class shares a proud heritage of design innovation.Įlectric Boat, or EB as it is known among its employees, didn’ t have a monopoly on good ideas. HAW All is also the third ship of the Virginia class. 0 f note, the recently commissioned USS HAW All (SSN 776) has the distinction of being the 1OOth nuclear powered submarine built by General Dynamics Electric Boat. nuclear submarine classes, Electric Boat designed and built 15 of them. Ships such as TULLIBEE, NARWHAL, LIPSCOMB and TRITON were prototypes that pioneered new sonar arrays, passive ranging capabilities, propulsion systems and machinery quieting techniques that today’s submariners take for granted. Most were members of large classes, but some were unique efforts to experiment with new capabilities. Throughout the Cold War, Electric Boat designed and built numerous follow-on attack and ballistic missile submarines. She carried no weapons, but for decades she crawled along the seabed conducting valuable search and recovery, oceanographic research missions and the installation and maintenance of underwater equipment. Her small but powerful reactor freed her from the endurance restrictions that batteries imposed on conventional submersibles. strategic triad-a distinction that endures today.Īt the other end of the mission spectrum Electric Boat designed and built the tiny Submarine NR- 1, the world’s first nuclear powered research submarine. Once underway, it was nearly impossible to locate, making the SSBN the most survivable leg of the U.S.
Armed with 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads, USS GEORGE WASHINGTON was by far the most powerful ship afloat. While the Submarine Force was still experimenting with NAUTILUS, Electric Boat inserted a large missile section into a follow-on SSN already under construction and created the world’s first SSBN. It built nuclear submarines with new hull forms, propulsion plants, sensors and even new mission capabilities in rapid succession. In the years after NAUTILUS the Navy engaged in what can only be described as an era of heady experimentation. It was a technological marvel that immediately supplanted all anti-submarine warfare platforms, tactics and weapons. When USS NAUTILUS went lo sea in 1955 it was the world’s only real submarine, possessing unprecedented submerged endurance even while operating at high speed. Having built the Navy’s first submarine in 1900 and many more during two World Wars, Electric Boat enthusiastically accepted the challenge. In 1952 Captain Hyman Rickover approached Electric Boat with his vision for a nuclear powered submarine after another shipyard told him it was impossible. A History of Submarine Design and Innovation Leadership dominance in undersea warfare for decades to come. The legacy of innovation that helped Electric Boat to deliver the Navy’s first submarine, the Navy’s first welded-hull submarine, the Navy’s first nuclear submarine and the Navy’s first ballistic missile submarine remains firmly imbedded in the culture at Electric Boat, and will help ensure U.S. For General Dynamics Electric Boat, the lead design yard, VIRG INIA represents the culmination of more than a century of submarine innovation. Navy ship designed for post-Cold War security challenges. The Virginia-Class submarine is the first warship designed completely on computers, and the first U.S. CAPT Karl Hasslinger, USN(Ret) is a former attack submarine commander who is now the Director of Washington Operations/or General Dynamics Electric Boat. Patrick Bevins has 35 years experience in submarine operations and design, and is currently the Program lead/or future submarine rolls and missions at General Dynamics Electric Boat.
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