USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23)

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Career
Awarded:	29 June 1996
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:	2004
Fate:	Under construction
Homeport:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	7568 tons light, 9137 tons full, 1569 tons dead
Length:	107.5 meters (353 feet) overall, 107.5 meters (353 feet) waterline
Beam:	12.1 meters (40 feet)
Draft:	10.9 meters (36 feet)
Complement:	15 officers, 101 men

USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) is the third and last of the Seawolf class submarines. She has been specially modified for highly classified missions and testing of new submarine systems. She is named after former President Jimmy Carter, who served in the US Navy as an officer and nuclear engineer.

The Carter is roughly 100 feet longer than the other two ships of her class. This is due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces. The plug features a fairing over a wasp-waist shaped passageway allowing crew to pass between the fore and aft sections of the hull while providing a space to store ROVs and special equipment that may need to launch and recover from the submarine.

In addition, additional maneuvering devices are fitted fore and aft that will allow her to keep station over selected targets in odd currents. Past submarines that were so outfitted were used to place listening devices on undersea cables and listen on communications of foreign countries.

On 24 January 2004, Commander David Bartholomew, Jr., commanding officer of PCU Jimmy Carter was relieved of command because of a "loss of confidence" in his ability "pending further administrative or disciplinary action as appropriate." Captain Robert D. Kelso, deputy chief of staff of Submarine Development Squadron 12 in New London, took temporary command of the PCU until a new commanding officer could be named.