50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 257 Infiltrating the Shipyard

"Did they just come back from a battle?" Sun Zhiwei was a little confused, because he couldn't recall any conflicts happening recently.

However, it doesn't matter if he doesn't understand; what he sees is an opportunity.

This is the latest heavy fighter jet model, and it's even an aircraft carrier variant. If we manage to get one back, we'd definitely be awarded a first-class merit.

Sun Zhiwei suppressed his excitement and continued to concentrate on fishing.

He could only take action at night; during the day, he couldn't do anything.

After a day of fishing, Sun Zhiwei didn't go back to his RV to rest, but instead stayed on the yacht.

Night fell quickly, and the lights at the dock gradually went out, leaving only the sound of the waves crashing against the boats on the shore.

At this moment, Sun Zhiwei gently opened the bottom hatch of the 'Hamburg' from the inside.

Wearing a diving suit and carrying an oxygen tank, he silently slid into the water along the side of the boat.

Today's target is the nearby Newport News Shipbuilding, where Los Angeles-class attack submarines are being built.

He needs to find out whether there are any Los Angeles-class ships already built in the shipyard.

The distance from the dock to the edge of the shipyard is only a few hundred meters. During the day, they can see the aircraft carrier being fitted out from afar.

He soon swam to the outermost dock, but this was just a ship prefabrication factory, which was used to mass-produce prefabricated components for various ships.

For example, the keel, deck, and hull of a ship are designed to reduce construction time and improve project progress when building ships in batches.

Further ahead from here is the construction platform for the later stages of aircraft carrier development. Currently, two aircraft carriers that have already been launched are having equipment installed.

This place is still quite far from the dock where submarines are built.

The shipyard's dock is 5 kilometers long. The submarines are initially laid out in the dry dock with keels and frames, and then large components are installed on the keel.

Once this step is completed, the prefabricated curved steel plates will be welded into a single outer shell. After that, it can be launched into the water.

However, after the ship was launched, the construction period was not even half completed. There were still a large number of small pieces of equipment and thousands of pipelines to be installed.

After the equipment is installed, it needs to be debugged. After debugging, it needs to be outfitted inside and out. After outfitting, it needs to be tested on-site.

It typically takes two years from the start of construction to the completion of outfitting and the commencement of field testing for a Los Angeles-class attack submarine.

Sometimes, the construction period is also extended due to limitations in parts and funding.

The fastest launch record for a Los Angeles-class attack submarine in history is 18 months.

From launch to delivery to the navy, there is a 1-2 year period for renovation and sea trials.

Of the Los Angeles-class attack submarines that have been built so far, the earliest one, the USS Los Angeles, is about to complete its testing and is expected to be delivered to the Navy within six months.

However, it should be noted that construction of the USS Los Angeles began in January 1972, which is now four and a half years ago, and it will take a full five years to be delivered to the Navy.

This shows how difficult it was to build an H-powered submarine. However, at this time, our country also had its own H-submarine.

Although we are not yet as technologically advanced as the bald eagle, we are still working hard to catch up, and Sun Zhiwei's actions will also help our domestic research and development progress.

Thinking that he could contribute to the country, Sun Zhiwei, who was swimming underwater, swam even harder.

However, what he hoped for most at that moment was to get his hands on an underwater propulsion device in the future, which would make long-distance diving much easier. By the time he swam to the submarine dock, more than half an hour had passed.

Sun Zhiwei concealed his body underwater near the submarine dock before deploying his spatial array to begin scanning.

He quickly located all six Los Angeles-class attack submarines under construction, one of which had already completed hull welding and was expected to be launched in a few months.

However, none of these six ships were his target, and he continued his search in the dock.

Soon, in one of the dry docks, he discovered two Los Angeles-class submarines undergoing outfitting.

The dock has been filled with water, and all the equipment for the two submarines has been installed. They are floating on the water for final painting.

The two submarines, with hull numbers SSN691 and SSN692, are the USS Memphis and USS Omaha, which are about to enter the testing phase.

Sun Zhiwei stood outside the dock, where he could clearly see shipyard workers hoisting missiles and torpedoes into the submarine.

The equipment testing of these two submarines should have been completed, otherwise they wouldn't have started loading supplies.

Based on the current progress of resupply, the resupply operation will be completed in three days at most, at which point it should set sail to enter the six-month sea trial phase.

After estimating the submarine's departure time, Sun Zhiwei did not linger but continued swimming eastward.

Today he also needs to find out what happened to the aircraft carrier Nimitz, which he encountered during the day and which was suspected of having been in combat.

The USS Nimitz is currently docked at the Norfolk Naval Base.

The distance from the shipyard to the naval base is a full 10 kilometers, and Sun Zhiwei felt it would be a bit difficult to swim across that distance by himself.

After thinking for a moment, he turned back. This time he was more familiar with the waterways and it only took him half an hour to get back to the 'Hamburger'.

The next morning, Sun Zhiwei said goodbye to his fishing buddies and drove his RV away from the dock.

He spent the whole day wandering around the city's waterfront area, and finally in the afternoon, he found a small speedboat at a remote dock dozens of kilometers away.

The small dock was filled with many small boats that hadn't been used for a long time, and there was usually only one person on duty in the guard room at the dock entrance.

Sun Zhiwei found a small white speedboat, used his spatial ability to transport it away without alerting anyone.

At night, he drove his RV to a grove of trees on the shore and launched the small speedboat into the water.

After boarding the boat and conducting a simple inspection to confirm that there were no problems with the speedboat, he filled the speedboat's fuel tank with the spare fuel from the RV.

After circling the speedboat to make sure it was working, he stored the RV in his storage space. Then he drove the speedboat toward Norfolk Naval Base.

Around 1 a.m., the speedboat docked at a secluded beach two kilometers from the naval base.

The entire naval base's dock area is surrounded by various buildings in the center, stretching for more than ten kilometers.

This was almost the closest public area to the naval dock. He quickly put on his diving gear, jumped into the water, and then stored the speedboat in his spatial storage while underwater.

Two kilometers is not a short distance for diving, but it was much easier than yesterday.

It took Sun Zhiwei half an hour to infiltrate the Norfolk Naval Base from the sea.

(End of this chapter)