USS Blackhawk is a Coarsegold-class nuclear attack submarine equipped with Electronic Noise Cancellation Transducer. It was launched in 1997 and commissioned in 1999.
It was Captained by Jonathan Hawkins and participated in the operation "Iceman" during which Commander John Westland served as Executive Officer.
Characteristics[]
- Displacement
- 4000 Tons
- Dimensions
- 150*25*25 ft.
- Engine
- 1 Hyper Dyne pressurized-water cooled S6G reactor
- Electric engine produces 65000 shaft horse power and 50knots (submerged)
- Speed
- 60+ submerged
- Missiles
- 8 Harpoon Active Radar Homing to 150 NM at 0.9 mach
- Warhead 500 LB
- Torpedoes
- 4-21’’ tubes midships.
- Sting Ray 8; active/passive sonar homing range (35 nm) at 90 knots; warhead 587 lb; depth to 2950'.
- Total of 26 weapons can be tube-launched: possible combo: 8 tomahawk, 4 harpoon, 14 torpedoes
- Mines
- Yes
- Countermeasures
- Decoys; Emerson Electric MK2; Torpedo Decoy ESM; BRD-7; Direction finding WELR-12; Radar Warning WLR-9A; Intercept
- Control
- UYK-7 Computer
- MK 117 Mod 10 Torpedo Fire Control System
- Fitted with WSC-3 Satellite Communications Transceiver
- Radars
- Surface search/navigation/fire control: Sperry BPS 15A; I/J Band
- Sonars
- IBM BQQ 5D; Passive/active search and attack; low frequency
- Ametec BQS 15; active close-range with ice detection; high frequency
Course during the Iceman operation[]
- Set sail from Pearl Harbor
- 30,170: review orders and set course. Contact with a French Frigate which gave 2 messages: one for contacting the fisherman, and one notifying about Russian ships patrolling the Bering Sea
- 65,170: Battle with a Russian destroyer and receive two messages, the first one is about contacting the agent once you reach Tunisia and the other is an order about not reaching surface after you cross the pole.
- 72,170 (Bering Straits)
- 80,120: Pass icebergs
- 86,86 (Ice Station)
- 85,15: Contact Ice Station. The Washington message is instructions on how to contact the ship USS Coontz at 36,12 to guide through the straits. The CIA message suggests a diversion by destroying an oil rig.
- 83,2 (Greenland Sea)
- 65,23 (Past the Denmark Strait)
- 60,30: Encounter of a Russian sub near Reykjanes
- 36,12: Contacting Coontz which guides the Blackhawk through the Straits of Gibraltar
- 33,-13: Arrival at the coast of Tunisia. The Executive Officer leaves the sub.