A Rare Look Inside One of the US Navy’s Most Dangerous Warships

Above: USS John Warner.Daniel Brown/Business Insider

By Daniel Brown,Business Insider

The USS John Warner, a Virginia-class attack submarine commissioned in 2015, was involved in the US’ missile strike into Syria on Friday night, the Pentagon confirmed.The Warner fired six Tomahawk missiles.We got the chance to tour the Warner as it was docked at Naval Station Norfolk in November 2017.Named after the former US senator John Warner — but nicknamed the “Sledgehammer of Freedom” by the crew — the Warner can perform a variety of missions for the US Navy, including surveillance, reconnaissance, and search and rescue, as well as launch land-attack missiles, torpedoes, and mines.US submarines, including the Warner, are highly classified and rarely seen by the public.But we got to take a tour of it — here’s what we saw.View As: One PageSlides

We walked onto to the submarine pier at Naval Station Norfolk as the sun was setting and the crew members were loading a special-operations force box onto the Warner.

Daniel Brown/Business Insider

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, as they are classified.

Daniel Brown/Business InsiderThe ship also has a displacement of 7,800 tons and can hit depths of 800 feet or more.

We then met our tour guide, Senior Chief Mark Eichenlaub, who 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.

Now let’s step aboard. This short video shows you how.

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Commanded by Burt J. Canfield, the Warner is divided into three levels.

Daniel Brown/Business InsiderThe upper level is mostly living and sleeping (or berthing) quarters for the crew, the middle level is operational space, and the lower level has the nuclear reactor and other engineering devices.