


Intelligence experts speculate that the MMP may find use in missions as an underwater splicing chamber for optical fiber cables. Jimmy Carter has additional maneuvering devices fitted fore and aft that allow her to keep station over selected targets in odd currents. One result of the changes was that Jimmy Carter was commissioned more than six years after USS Connecticut and almost four months after the commissioning of USS Virginia, the first of the Virginia-class subs. Jimmy Carter was christened on 5 June 2004, and the ship sponsor was former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. This section is fitted with an ocean interface for divers, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and special operation equipment ROV handling system, storage, and deployment space for mission systems, and a pressure-resistant passage between the fore and aft parts of the submarine to accommodate the boat's crew. During modification, her hull was extended 100 feet (30 m) to create a 2,500-ton supplementary middle section which forms a Multi-Mission Platform (MMP).

Electric Boat was awarded an $887 million extension to the Jimmy Carter contract on 10 December 1999 to modify the boat for testing new submarine systems and classified missions previously carried out by USS Parche. Original schedules called for Jimmy Carter to be commissioned in late 2001 or early 2002. The contract to build Jimmy Carter was to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 29 June 1996, and her keel was laid on 5 December 1998. Extensively modified from the original design of her class, she is sometimes described as a subclass unto herself. The only submarine to be named for a living president, Jimmy Carter is also one of the few vessels, and only the third submarine of the US Navy, to be named for a living person. Commissioned in 2005, she is named for the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, the only president to have qualified on submarines. USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) is the third and final Seawolf-class nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine in the United States Navy. 2 steam turbines 57,000 shp (43 MW) Ĩ × 26.5 inch torpedo tubes, sleeved for 21 inch weapons (up to 50 Tomahawk land attack missile/ Harpoon anti-ship missile/ Mk 48 guided torpedo carried in torpedo room) ĭiagram of Jimmy Carter, showing added features.With the modified spy sub, the VPM space could account for the extra space needed for the multi-mission platform.Bangor Annex of Naval Base Kitsap, Washington Newer generation Virginia-class subs are equipped with Virginia Payload Modules, or VPM, to carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, extending the sub's body by 84 feet. Because the MMP connects the fore and aft sections of the submarine, a tapered passageway called a "wasp waist" passes through the MMP, allowing crew and boat-length wiring to connect both ends of the craft. The multi-mission platform, or MMP, is a fortified section of the hull that can turn the submarine into a hangar of sorts for a host of deep-sea exploratory instruments. Like the submarine under construction, the Jimmy Carter sports a 100-foot hull extension called a multi-mission platform. While specific details of the hull design are closely guarded for national security, the new submarine is expected to bolster – and could eventually succeed – the USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf-class submarine commissioned in 2005 and presently the only special-mission sub of its kind deployed by the Navy.
