U.S. Navy Eyes SSBN Improvements
The U.S. Navy sees its SSBN(X) ballistic missile submarine replacement fleet basically as an improved model of the current SSBN boats leveraging Virginia-class sub advancements and refined construction methods.
“The initial plan is for 16 tubes, a new-design reactor plant, [and] similar antennas and design to the Trident- and Virginia-class submarine,” Rear Adm. Joe Mulloy, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, said Feb. 14 during his briefing on the service’s fiscal 2012 budget proposal.
He added: “We know general specs. But the specifics of the power and weight and layout of all that will now happen as a result of this money being in the 2012 budget. We can rapidly move down that path.”
There would be no advanced torpedo room, he says, but the Navy does hope to improve the sub’s stealth aspects. Both the Virginia- and Seawolf-class boats are acknowledged as the stealthiest submarines in operation.
The service is requesting about $1.1 billion to jump-start the Ohio-class SSBN replacement program, compared to a $672 million baseline for the current fiscal year. The Navy could wind up paying up to $40 billion to buy the entire replacement fleet in decades to come, and total program costs could reach $100 billion by some industry estimates.
The service has always been keen on submarine program funding. Subs were the single greatest Navy vessel expense between 1999 and 2009, according to an Aerospace DAILY analysis of contracting data provided by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. The Navy spent about $11.4 billion for subs during those years, excluding nuclear reactor expenses, the analysis shows.
In addition to the SSBN(X) plan, the Navy also is requesting about $5 billion to buy another two Virginia-class submarines in fiscal 2012 — and plans to keep buying two more annually over the next five years.
While the Navy has not yet come out with the exact specifications for the SSBN(X), the service is starting related work for the program.
“Four contractors are building tubes that will be shipped to Electric Boat and assembled into a tube pack,” Mulloy says. “They will not go on the first submarine, but the idea is [to figure out] how do you build and weld, because it’s a different-design submarine.”
Instead of the traditional missile-sub building process — build the missile compartment, cut holes and drop tubes — the Navy and contractors will take advantage of the modular construction now used for the Virginia-class boats. “You’re going to build tubes in four-packs that are fitted to hull pieces that will then be added into the cylinders that are assembled,” Mulloy says.
“The idea is I can assemble in pieces and build,” Mulloy adds, citing the “dramatic savings” Electric Boat has seen in building subs using its facility in Quonset, R.I.
Photo: US Navy
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