Large Scale Vehicle 2 - LSV 2
Last updated: December 4, 2000
Description: The world's largest unmanned autonomous submarine.
Features: LSV 2 Cutthroat will offer the capability to conduct a wide variety of studies dramatically improving the acoustic and operational performance of future submarines.
Background: LSV 2 Cutthroat will provide submarine design engineers a platform to test advanced submarine technologies.
Cutthroat, a 205-ton, large scale submarine test vehicle, will be used to affordably explore and test emerging technologies and to conduct physics-based experiments. Specific emphasis will be on stealth, hydrodynamics, hydroacoustics and propulsion designs to permit technology insertion into current and future submarines.
The LSV 2 will provide the capability to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies that will result in major improvements in performance for the U.S. Navy's new attack submarine, USS Virginia (SSN 774). The LSV 2 is being designed and built by an industry team from Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics/Electric Boat Company under contract from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).
After delivery in 2001, LSV 2 will operate on Lake Pend Oreille at the Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview, Idaho, the Navy's laboratory for demonstrating submarine stealth technology. The facility is operated by the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division.
Cutthroat, named after a native Idaho trout, was named in 1997 after a selection process by nearby Athol Elementary School. The Navy asked the school to decide on a name from a list of indigenous Idaho fish. Many of these students attended the keel-laying in October 1997 and signed their names on the hull during the November 2000 ceremony.
Point of Contact:
Naval Sea System Command
Naval Surface Warfare Center
Public Affairs Office
Carderock Division
9500 MacArthur Boulevard
West Bethesda, MD 20817-5700
(301) 227-4465
General Characteristics
Primary Function:
Contractor:Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat
Unit Cost: Not available
Propulsion: Electric drive (3,000 shaft horsepower (shp) plant coupled with electric motor controller, expandable to 6,000 shp with additional motor controlled modules).
Length: 111 feet (33.83 meters)
Diameter: 10 feet (3.05 meters)
Weight: 205 tons (205,000 metric tons)
Armament: None
Crew: None
Ships:
Cutthroat (LSV 2), christened on November 15, 2000
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Description: The world's largest unmanned autonomous submarine.