The Navy Needs More Submarines (And Has a Plan to Get Them)
Dave Majumdar [2]
The United States Navy is looking at extending the life of its existing nuclear-powered attack submarines while also increasing the production rate for the Virginia-class boats to make up for a severe shortfall in its SSN fleet.
In the coming years the Navy’s attack submarine fleet is set to shrink to below the previously stated requirement of 48 SSNs to only 41 by 2029, the service has to do something to arrest the force’s decline let alone rebuild toward the new stated requirement of 66. That something will be to try to extend the service lives of five existing attack submarines while also trying to ramp up the production rate for the Virginia-class to three boats per year in the years the Navy does not have to build a Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.
Source URL (retrieved on April 17, 2018):
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-navy-needs-more-submarines-has-plan-get-them-25397
