taxpayers nearly twice as much as a Virginia does. A Seawolf’s shape and powerplant make it faster-35 knots versus 25 knots-and allow it to carry 50 torpedoes versus the 25 a Virginia can carry.īut those enhancements come at a cost. The SSN(X) could end up looking less like a Virginia and more like a Seawolf, which at 353 feet long and 40 feet wide is shorter but fatter than a Virginia is. Thus the service wants its next submarine-the so-called SSN(X)-to be an open-ocean hunter-killer with the speed, stealth, sensors and weapons it would need to stalk and destroy other subs. The more rival boats ply the oceans, the more the Navy is emphasizing the ability of one submarine to hunt down another submarine. New and improved Russian and Chinese submarines slowly are catching up to the Virginias’ capabilities. Whether the Navy aims for 66 attack subs or 78, it can’t just keep buying Virginias. The Navy’s last credible force-structure plan anticipated the service would possess 66 attack boats in 2048.Ī last-minute-some would say “fantastical”-shipbuilding plan that the outgoing administration of ex-President Donald Trump released in late 2020 called for a force of 78 attack boats by the end of the 2040s. Continuing production of new Virginias should grow the undersea fleet through the 2020s. The Navy projects its attack boat force will decline to a low of 52 in 2022-several fewer than the Chinese navy could operate at the time. The Navy now buys two attack boats every year, somewhat slowing the shrinkage of the submarine fleet as the hulls of 1980s-vintage Los Angeles-class attack boats wear out. The unit cost has risen owing to inflation and upgrades, but the scheme more or less worked. In 2012 the service pulled the trigger on a long-in-the-works scheme to buy two Virginias for a combined $4 billion in 2005 dollars-the “two for four in ‘12” plan. The Navy wanted a cheaper sub-and one it could build in large numbers. But the three boats of the Seawolf class each cost more than $5 billion.
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