Teacher's Guide: Indoor Exhibits - Technology Wing

Note: To the right of the main entrance are the bathrooms, drinking fountains, and elevator. Because of the elevator’s small size and relatively slow speed, we ask that only those unable to walk up the stairs use it.

Technology Wing

Note: This section of the Museum is to the left when you walk in the main entrance.

Consoles

Consoles: These panels, taken from Cold-War-era subs after their decommissionings, operated combat systems and sonar.

Missile tube locking ring

Missile tube locking ring: This locking ring secured the outer hatch on the top of a missile tube; it is 72 inches in diameter. (See one in place atop the missile-tube section outside, near the deck gun.) This ring came from one of the sixteen tubes aboard USS JAMES K. POLK (SSBN-645).

Missile tube section

Missile tube section: A portion of an actual missile tube that held POSEIDON and POLARIS missiles. (The hatch was used to access the missile for maintenance and systems inspections.) The monitor within the hatch shows video footage of real missile launches.

City Beneath the Sea

City Beneath the Sea: This cutaway model of a LOS-ANGELES class fast-attack submarine gives visitors a sense of the scale and layout of the boat. (This particular model is of an "improved" 688; the final 23 boats of the class are of this type. They are quieter than the first batch of 688s and carry more advanced weapons systems. In addition, their diving planes are on the bow, not the sail, and the sail is reinforced to make it easier for the boat to surface through ice.) Compare it to the cutaway model of the World-War-II-era sub hanging from the ceiling over the second deck.

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