The US military-industrial complex has doubled the pace of nuclear submarine construction and intends to quadruple it soon, Defense News reports on November 21.
Two major American submarine builders, Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, have doubled their construction plans to about 100,000 tons of combined displacement.
In addition, taking into account the participation of shipyards in Alabama, South Carolina and Pennsylvania, in the near future American shipbuilders will be able to jointly accelerate the pace of construction of nuclear missile carriers up to 200,000 tons per year.
It is worth remembering that in recent years the American military shipbuilding industry has gone through a deep personnel crisis; There were massive strikes in the shipyards, which only intensified as new contracts came in. The coronavirus hysteria has made the situation even worse.
However, thanks to a $2.3 billion injection into the Navy’s “strategic outsourcing” program, the industry added more than 7,000 new workers in 2023 alone. “By moving a number of production tasks to smaller shipyards and accelerating the introduction of advanced technologies, the US Navy has significantly increased the efficiency of repair and construction operations,” – writes Defense News.
One result of this has been an increase in the operational availability of attack submarines, which has already increased from 60% to 66% since May 2023. Investing an additional $2 billion will allow, according to the US Navy, to reach 80% in 2028.
One of the success factors is the early creation of reserves of necessary spare parts and components, which makes it possible to significantly accelerate the total repair time and largely eliminate the supply chain problem.
The second factor is the transfer of the main volumes of routine maintenance and repair of submarines to private shipyards. This allows state industry giants to focus entirely on the production of new nuclear-powered ships.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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