‘My Last Ship Was Older Than I Was’: Sailor Quizzes SecDef On New SSBNs
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/07/my-last-ship-was-older-than-i-was-sailor-quizzes-secdef-on-new-ssbns/
My Last Ship Was Older Than I Was: Sailor Quizzes SecDef On New SSBNs
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on July 10, 2014 at 4:00 AM
KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, GEORGIA: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel came here Wednesday to celebrate the Navys nuclear deterrence force. But just 20 minutes in, a petty officer second class stood up in front of almost 200 of his comrades and pointed out the $95 billion elephant in the room: Can the Navy afford to buy the next generation of ballistic missile submarines?
Todays Ohio-class SSBNs are most important leg of the nuclear triad: Under the New START arms control treaty, the subs are slated to carry 70 percent of the nations deployed nuclear warheads. But theyre starting to kind of show their age, the sailor told Hagel. My last ship was older than I was.
This is World War II technology with modern electronics, said Capt. William Houston, commander of the SSBN squadron here, as he slapped the periscope on the 27-year-old USS Tennessee. (Ohio-class periscopes use physical mirrors; the newer Virginia-class attack subs have video cameras). Even with their service life extended to an unprecedented 42 years so long that accumulated metal fatigue on the hull will become a crucial limit the Ohio SSBNs will have to start retiring in 2027.
Design of a new Ohio Replacement Program submarine (formerly SSBN-X) is already underway. Yes, its forcing us to make some hard choices in our budget, but Ive been clear on this, the presidents been clear on this, Hagel told the auditorium full of sailors. We continue to be committed to a new generation of (ballistic missile) submarines.
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Virginia-class submarines currently cost somewhere between $5 ~ $7 billion dollars each.