SEALs, former missile sub form anti-terrorist experiment

ABOARD THE USS FLORIDA -- Cruise ships are sharing the ocean off the Bahamas with something menacing and stealthy: an enormous black submarine carrying Navy commandos hunting for terrorists.

The sub and its contingent of SEALs (for Sea, Air and Land) are part of a Navy experiment exploring ways to clandestinely confirm and eliminate threats from terrorist cells.

"This is a different kind of enemy," said Capt. William Toti, who is running the $6 million exercise, called Giant Shadow.

"They don't just stand there and fight," Toti said Saturday of terrorists. "They scatter like cockroaches. If they know we're onto them, they're gone."

The centerpiece of the 10-day exercise, due to end Tuesday, is the USS Florida, which formerly carried Trident nuclear missiles.

The 560-foot Florida, based in Norfolk, Va., is one of four such missile submarines that had faced the scrap heap. Instead, the subs will now be converted to each carry up to 154 Tomahawk guided missiles and ferry more than 60 SEALs, the Navy special operations troops.

Simulated mission

The exercise involved a simulated mission to confirm intelligence reports that terrorists were building a chemical weapons facility on an island.

Unmanned air and underwater vehicles took surveillance images. The SEALs then went ashore in rubber rafts, hid acoustic, video and chemical weapon "sniffer" sensors and took vegetation and soil samples to be analyzed for biological or chemical agents.

Some parts of the exercise had to be scrubbed because of rough seas. But officials said that did not detract from the experiment, which they consider a success despite communication problems.

"We don't expect an experiment to work perfectly. That's what experimenting is about," said Toti, assistant chief of staff for requirements for the commander of the Navy's submarine forces.

To the SEALs, the converted missile sub means roomy accommodations, plus facilities that will help support multiple missions over several months.

Ordinarily, such missions would take them to sea on fast-attack subs, which are about 200 feet shorter and have room for only 10 to 20 SEALs. The smaller subs mean they must bunk practically on top of each other in the torpedo rooms, and they can only do one mission over a short period.

'A great platform'

"This is a great platform for us to be able to work off of," said Capt. Randy Goodman, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Four, SEALs based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, Va. "I'm sold."

Critics argue that the roughly $3.8 billion it will cost to convert all four Ohio-class subs -- the Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Georgia -- would be better spent developing new weapons and attack submarines.

"As much as I like the Ohio-class subs -- they're big, they're neat, they're silent, they're famous from Tom Clancy (novels) -- I kind of have to wonder how important it is for this particular conversion to take place," said Patrick Garrett, a defense analyst who did not participate in the experiment.

"I'm not sure if it's anything other than a large taxi or a large bus for the SEALS," said Garrett, of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit military intelligence and space research organization in Alexandria, Va.

The Navy, however, figures it would be cheaper to convert the subs than to create something new at an estimated cost of $12 billion.

The Florida still faces 32 months of conversion and refueling. After testing, it is expected to return to the fleet in 2007.

"They took away all my missiles, but actually it's really exciting," said Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Maden, a 31-year-old missile technician from Pensacola, Fla. "It's awesome to see change."