Tacoma News Tribune March 13, 2000 Going To Depths Of Modern Spy Technology

USS Jimmy Carter, headed for Bangor home port in 2004, will be premier spy submarine By Les Blumenthal, The News Tribune WASHINGTON - When the USS Jimmy Carter slips silently into its berth at Submarine Base Bangor on Hood Canal, it will open a new chapter in one of the most dangerous and least-known sides of the nation's secret spy wars. And when it finally puts to sea in 2005, the Jimmy Carter will be America's premier spy sub.

The state-of-the-art submarine will be capable of inserting teams of Navy SEALs into trouble spots around the globe. It could launch camera-equipped airborne drones while underwater and relay real-time images to shore.

It could silently track the fleets of nations like Russia, China and North Korea, and engage in other "special ops" missions that the Pentagon won't even hint at.

"God only knows what they will do with that sub," said retired Adm. Eugene Carroll, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information, a nonpartisan group that tracks defense issues.

The Navy last week announced the Jimmy Carter will be based at Bangor beginning in late 2004. Until then, it is undergoing almost $900 million in modifications at a shipyard in Groton, Conn. The shipyard will add about 100 feet to the submarine's length so it can carry, among other things, 50 SEALs and a special operations command center.

New maneuvering devices will be added to its bow and stern that will allow it to hover for hours in a fixed position underwater. Also installed will be a special hull opening, known as a "wasp waist," that will allow the sub to deploy and recover special payloads such as a submersible craft capable of carrying eight commandos.

An upgraded radio room, high-tech communications and combat and sonarsystems will be added. And, according to some reports, the submarine may also be equipped with a special claw that can lift such things as enemy missiles or torpedoes off the ocean floor without being detected.

"This submarine will have tremendous capabilities," said U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Bremerton), a senior member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee who lobbied the Navy to base the Jimmy Carter at Bangor.

"There are lot of things that can be done undersea, but I can't get into that."

The Navy has said little about the Jimmy Carter's modification or its future missions, and details are classified. But in a terse press release last week, the Navy said the modifications will "allow additional volume and services to accommodate advanced technology for naval special warfare, tactical surveillance and mine warfare operations."

The Navy said the submarine also would carry out its more traditional duties. It will be one of the newest attack subs in the fleet, capable of speeds up to 25 knots while submerged and able to operate at depths of more> than 800 feet.

In picking Bangor as the Jimmy Carter's home port, the Navy selected one of its most modern submarine bases. Bangor is already home to eight Trident ballistic missile submarines and the USS Parche, currently the nation's No. 1 spy sub.

The Navy would only say that Bangor was selected after an "impartial, objective and comprehensive review." Others have said the base was selected because it is a deep-water port capable of handling a more than 450-foot-long sub. And because the Parche is already based there, Bangor is accustomed to sensitive missions requiring tight security.

The Jimmy Carter eventually will replace the Parche, which will be retired in several years.

"It was a strategic move for the Navy," Dicks said of the choice of Bangor. But the decision did not sit well with Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who has sent a protest letter to Defense Secretary William Cohen. Dodd has argued it makes more sense to base the Jimmy Carter in Groton, where many of the nation's attack subs are based.

Since the beginning of the Cold War, U.S. submarines have prowled the inky depths conducting spy and other "black" missions.

One U.S. submarine, the USS Lampon, trailed a new Soviet Yankee-class submarine for a record 47 days, with daily updates provided to then-President Nixon. Others were used to tap underwater communication cables used by the Soviet Union in the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk near the Soviets' Pacific fleet headquarters in Vladivostok. Navy subs also helped locate a Golf-class Soviet submarine that had sunk in the Pacific. Efforts by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer to raise the submarine failed.

The 25-year-old Parche is the Navy's most decorated submarine because of its clandestine exploits.

The Parche was almost caught at one point trying to change the recording tapes on a tap of a Soviet undersea cable in the Barents Sea, but managed to escape. The submarine was wired with self-destruct mechanisms in case it was captured, according to the 1998 book "Blind Man's Bluff," a history of the Navy's spy sub program, Sherry Sontag, a freelance journalist and a co-author of the book, said that even with the demise of the Soviet Union there are plenty of reasons for the United States to have a submarine like the Jimmy Carter. "While there may not be as many reasons as before, it's still a dangerous world," she said.

While Sontag said the Navy has reduced its spy missions against Russia by about 90 percent since the Cold War, there are plenty of other targets, including China, North Korea and Iran. The U.S. spy subs can eavesdrop, track deployments of other navies, monitor missile and torpedo tests conducted by other countries and deploy SEALs, she said.

The CDI's Carroll said U.S. submarines are sure to keep an eye on Taiwan, because of the threat of military action by China. "We can track what they are doing," he said. "Our subs could run up the Yangtze River if they had to."

Staff writer Les Blumenthal covers Northwest issues in Congress.