The US Navy ’s fleet of heavily - armed SSGN pigboat will run through their nuclear fuel supplies by 2026 . At that point , they must be replaced at a cost of $ 8 billion apiece . job is , $ 8 billion is roughly half of the Navy ’s annual ship production budget . So what ’s the Navy to do ?
It plans to stretch out — literally — its Virginia - class attack submarines by an extra 94 feet to salt away 26 supernumerary missiles ( for a amount of 40 ) and outfit them with an sophisticated sensational suite — at a quartern the price of a new SSGN , just $ 2 billion to each one . Sure the SSGN transmit 154 Tomahawks apiece , but there are only four SSGN ’s in the US fleet — equate to the 10 Virginia - course available . This modification will help propagate the fleet ’s firepower out more equally .
Once the Virginia - class submarine reenter divine service , they ’ll be accompanied by sub - shaped “ large - diameter Unmanned Underwater Vehicles ” packed with long - range receptive equipment to act as a remote and highly - maneuverable extra set of optic and ears . They ’ll also stock a UAV that can be establish from the expanded Tomahawk tubes . [ Wired – art courtesy ofAP Images ]
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