The U.S. Joins The World's Race To Build More Submarine

Image Credit: U.S. Navy

Franz-Stefan Gady, The Diplomat: How Many Attack Submarines Does the United States Need?

The U.S. Navy may face a critical shortfall in Virginia-class boats in the next decade.

The U.S. Navy is looking into the possibility of building three instead of two new nuclear-powered Virginia-class attack submarines (SSN-774) per year, military.com reports. The reason is simple: with older Los-Angeles-class fast-attack submarines (built between 1972 and 1996) retiring at a faster pace than Virginia subs are added, the U.S. Navy will face a shortfall in the number of active vessels in the near future.

This projected deficit is not news and was already predicted by analysts as far back as 1995, given the U.S. Navy’s current requirement of deploying an average of 10 nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) on a day-to-day basis.

WNU Editor: Every major maritime power in the world is boosting their submarine fleets .... the U.S. is just following the trend.