We walked onto to the submarine pier at Naval Station Norfolk as the sun was setting and the crew members were loading a special forces operation box onto the Warner.
The Warner is 377 feet long, 34 feet wide, and about 50 feet tall. We weren't allowed to photograph the antennas atop the tower since they are classified.
The ship also has a displacement of 7,800 tons and can hit depths of 800 feet or more.
We then met our guide on the tour, Senior Chief Mark Eichenlaub. He began by telling us about the cruise missile payload tubes on the front of the sub:
Overall, the Warner has a payload of 38 weapons along with special operating forces.
Commanded by Daniel B. Caldwell, the Warner is divided into three levels.
The upper level is mostly living and sleeping (or birthing) quarters for the crew, while the middle level is for operational space and the lower level is where the nuclear reactor and other engineering devices are located.
We first entered the upper level of the ship, and this was our first glimpse inside. As you can see, it's a little tight in there.
Eichenlaub showed us the Lockout Trunk, which is a built-in Navy SEAL staging area.
"This is actually how we would get SEALs off the ship submerged," Eichenlaub said. "So you would stick a platoon of SEALs in here — 14 guys ... You fill this chamber with water until you match the outer sea pressure. Once the pressure in and outside the ship match, the hatch will lift off open and they can swim out of a fully filled chamber into open ocean."
Once the SEALs are in open water, they can retrieve any weapons or gear from the SOF box (which we saw being loaded into the tower in the first picture).
As we made our way to the middle level, we ran into a group of sailors performing a preventative maintenance check of the ship's electrical components.
On the middle level, we saw the flare and countermeasure launcher, which is situated in a small office.
Across the hall from the countermeasure launcher is a food closet, one of many on board that the ship needs to feed the crew for months at a time.
The closets go back about 15 feet, Eichenlaub said, and are packed strategically so that the crew can essentially eat their backwards.
Enlisted men eat here in the chow hall, which is the largest open space in the ship. There's even a soft serve ice cream machine on the right.
On the opposite wall hangs the, literal, sledgehammer of freedom. The crew began calling the Warner the "Sledgehammer of Freedom" after the commander's speech before their first deployment in which he referred to the ship as such.
The sledgehammer of freedom is for the crew, while officers have their own sledgehammer — the "Sledgehammer of Democracy."
The officers, on the other hand, eat in the officer's chow hall and are served by kitchen staff through the door in the back right. The commander sits in the star chair in front of the sledgehammer of democracy.
This is mission control — the most classified area of the ship. As such, all the monitors were turned off, and we cropped, blurred and darkened anything that was classified.
Sonar, fire control, and navigation computers are all located in mission control. Eichenlaub goes into detail about mission control in this short video:
Here is a shot of the sonar computers. The sonar system onboard is designed with a Large Aperture Bow Array that uses life of the hull hydrophones to detect sound waves produced by other ships and even sea life.
The Warner interestingly does not have a periscope and instead uses photonic masts built into the outside tower that provides a view above water that feeds into any monitor on the ship.
Eichenlaub then told us more about fire control, which is where torpedoes and cruise missiles are launched. You can watch here:
As we exited mission control, Eichenlaub showed us what the crew calls the "Fish Bowl."
Sailors assigned to the ship are not considered submariners until they receive their warfare qualifications — meaning that they are proficient in every system on board. Until a sailor receives their warfare qualifications, their personal seals are put in this case for motivation.
Every US submarine has a fish bowl.
Using a "pumpjet propulsor," Mark 48 Advanced Capability torpedoes can travel at speeds in excess of 50 mph — but its top speed is technically classified.
Read more about the Mark 48 here.
Eichenlaub said that sailors often name the torpedoes, like the one below, after their significant others.
Here's one of the four torpedo launchers in the torpedo room. How quickly they can reload and shoot, however, is classified.
We were only allowed to see the back-up diesel engine, seen below, on the lower level, as the nuclear reactor is highly classified.
The S9G pressurized water nuclear reactor propels the ship to speeds of 25 mph and more.
