Baby Boomers Will Upgrade U.S. Sub Fleet
With its ballistic-missile submarine replacement program anchored by milestone authority and a fiscal 2012 request for about $1.1 billion in RD funding, the U.S. Navy is set to develop and build SSBN(X) boats without sinking the rest of its shipbuilding plan.
While it is apparent the Navy plans to use the Virginia-class attack submarine program as a template for the SSBN(X), there is uncertainty about whether the new boomers will resemble a modified Virginia, improved version of the current SSBN model or a hybrid of both.
What is certain, though, is that the Navy is committed to developing and deploying the new submarines.
The 2010 Nuclear Posture Review emphasized the need to replace the SSBNs—the most survivable and capable of the strategic deterrence legs of the nuclear triad, according to the 2009 Final Report of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.
The U.K. uses the same D5 submarine missiles and is working with the U.S. on developing and building a common missile compartment.
While the U.K. plans to replace its ballistic submarine fleet a few years behind the U.S. schedule—despite a split between factions within the British government over whether the procurement should go ahead—U.K. funding has carried the compartment development thus far and the British remain on board, for now.
There’s no uncertainty about SSBN(X)’s high price. As the Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently noted, only a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier rivals a boomer’s shipbuilding cost.
Including the fiscal 2012 budget request, the Navy RD investment for the new sub class amounts to a bit more than $2 billion. Some estimates put RD as high as $7 billion.
CRS and Congressional Budget Office reports suggest individual sub price tags of $5-7 billion, with fleet acquisition costs running between $69 billion and more than $110 billion.
To put that in perspective, the Navy has spent at least $15.5 billion for submarine expenses—excluding nuclear reactor procurement—since 1999, according to a DTI analysis of contracting data provided by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting.
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