A Navy depiction of the future USS Columbia nuclear missile submarine (SSBN 826)
Breaking Defense: Pandemic Hits Navy’s New Nuke Submarine Program
Work on the missile tubes for the Navy's part of the nation's nuclear triad is months behind schedule after Babcock was smacked hard by the pandemic.
WASHINGTON: The Navy’s top priority — its new nuclear-powered Columbia-class submarine — has been struck by the COVID-19 virus. Workers’ absences at a critical supplier have delayed construction and welding of the boat’s missile tubes by several months a senior Navy official said today, and the service is scrambling to make that time up.
While the service and its contractors are looking for ways to reclaim that time, the situation is something that Navy and Pentagon officials have most feared. Large-scale work on the first of the twelve planned Columbia submarines is slated to kick off in 2021, with deliveries starting in 2030 — just in time to begin replacing the Cold War-era Ohio-class subs as the Navy’s leg of the nation’s nuclear triad. The subs will carry 70 percent of the warheads allowed by the New Start treaty with Russia.
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Update: "Worst-Case" Scenario - COVID Strikes Navy's New Submarine Program (Zero Hedge)
WNU Editor: I am willing to bet that all of the Pentagon's major programs are delayed by the pandemic. Not just its new nuclear-powered Columbia-class submarine.
1 comment:
Yes, the COVID-19 doesn't stop at the door of the Pentagon. But with the sun the virus is going down.
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