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The relevant congressional committees, the naval leadership, and industry expressed their concern about the backlog of the construction program. And this concern took visible features. Last Tuesday, the executive director of the SSB program, Rear Admiral Scott Papanno, said that although the pace of construction of the first SSB of the new generation has managed to increase, but they are still behind schedule. "Columbia" has a readiness for the hull and mechanisms of about 40%. In the next few weeks, HII Newport News Shipbuilding will ship the aft part from its Virginia shipyard to the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Connecticut. For the final assembly of the hull, Newport News is building the bow and stern for the Columbia program, and EB is building the center section.
Therefore, the US Navy is planning a short-term extension of the service life of five Ohio-class boats. Each maintenance period will take 18 months and will provide each boat with another three years of service life. It will begin with the USS Alaska (SSBN-732), provided for both in the budget for fiscal year 2025 and in the 15-year submarine maintenance plan.
Pappano said, referring to the Pentagon's five-year budget. However, it is possible to stop repairs of the Ohio-type SSRS if the pace of implementation of the Columbia program comes on schedule. Which is unlikely to happen.
According to Rear Admiral Papanno, the Navy has until fiscal year 2029 to decide whether the SSB repair program will be expanded to other Ohio-class boats or limited only to Alaska. The US Strategic Command requires that the submarine forces have 10 submarines with ballistic missiles in operational readiness (very vague wording) in the event of a nuclear war. The current composition of the SSB is 14 boats, but without extending the life of the Ohio, this number will be reduced to 13 in fiscal year 2027, and then to 12 in fiscal year 2029, according to the latest project of advanced shipbuilding. Without extending the service life, the number of SSBs will be reduced to 11, in the period from 2030 to 2032 fiscal year.
It turns out that the finances for the repair of the first of the Ohio-class submarines, Alaska, have already been included in the budget requirement for 2025. The repair will take a year and a half. Does the US have enough shipbuilding capacity and docks? If a large dry or floating dock is occupied, even if not for a year and a half, this will create problems with the docking of other ships. There are not many large docks in the USA that can accommodate a boat with a length of more than 170 meters and are also certified to work with nuclear power plants. In general, the problems continue. Now the difficulties of repairing the MAPL will be added to the PLARB. To the above, we can add that the Ohio-type SSB has already extended its service life. The boats were built based on a 35-year service life. And then, with an "elegant stroke of the pen," they were added 7 years each. Now the assigned resource of the building is 42 years old. But they can add more.
