Unlike the showboating Battleship North Carolina, now a tourist attraction with a famous profile, the Navy's newest USS North Carolina will be a sleek nuclear submarine that aims to stay out of sight.

When the sub joins the fleet in about two years, it will carry some of the military's newest gadgets. The ship will be able to attack with missiles, torpedoes and mines or skulk silently to snoop or drop off special operations teams.

The sub, under construction at a Virginia shipyard, will be the fourth Navy vessel to carry the North Carolina name. It also will be the fourth in a new class of submarines designed for warfare after the Cold War, when the primary adversary was the Soviet Union.

The Navy says the sub will cost $2.4 billion. But taxpayers will spend $95.8 billion to build all 30 Virginia-class submarines, a cost of $3.2 billion per ship, according to the most recent acquisition report published by the Department of Defense. The program has spent $25.5 billion to date.

Navy Secretary Richard Danzig named the submarine in 2000 after reviewing requests from citizens, veterans and state representatives, according to a Navy spokesman. Now largely unknown, the ship is gaining a higher profile in its namesake state through visits by officers and crew.

"We want people to see what they're getting for their money," said Cmdr. Ed Herrington, the ship's skipper.

Although the sub is not scheduled to formally join the fleet for two years, about 80 of the 135 crew members have already been selected. Crew members are assigned early so they can work with the shipbuilders as they install machinery and sophisticated equipment, said Navy spokesman Phil McGuinn.

"The crew has to be part of the building process," McGuinn said. "They have to be familiar with the systems."

Members of the all-male crew visited the Triangle in recent days, appearing at the State Fair and the Cary Public Library and helping Habitat For Humanity volunteers in Wake County. Some of the sub's sailors are scheduled to serve lunch today at Urban Ministries of Durham.

Christening, sea trials

The USS North Carolina is about 80 percent complete at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard in Newport News, Va. The keel was laid May 22, 2004.

The sub is scheduled to be christened and put in the water for the first time next year. Sea trials would follow, and if all goes well, the USS North Carolina would be commissioned in 2008. The Navy has not announced the ship's home port.

The Navy has three Seawolf-class subs that were designed as the ultimate deep-sea submarine killers and 48 Los Angeles-class subs, older vessels with duties similar to those of the Virginia class. What sets the North Carolina and the newer subs apart, the Navy says, is better engineering and equipment.

For instance, older submarines require four sailors to maneuver rudders and ballast systems and basically drive the ship. Virginia-class subs "have basically a pilot and co-pilot," McGuinn said. "You've got two people driving instead of four."

Gone are periscopes, the long shafts that stuck out of the top and relied on reflecting mirrors to transmit an image below. Virginia-class subs use sensors to survey surroundings and project images on a screen.

The subs are built in modular sections that can be modified for different missions. The torpedo room, for example, can be converted to space for special operations teams and their gear. A lockout trunk enables the crew to discharge teams and gear under water without surfacing.

The 377-foot-long submarines are capable of underwater speeds of more than 29 miles per hour and can stay submerged for months at a time. Typically, the subs will deploy for six months and remain submerged for a month to six weeks at a time.

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