Navy's Next Attack Submarine Will Be Wider And Based On The New Columbia Class Missile Boats
The U.S. Navy's future nuclear attack submarine, or SSN(X), is set to be
notably wider than the service's present Virginia class, bringing it more in line
size-wise with its advanced Seawolf class. It will also leverage
technology in development now for its future Columbia class ballistic missile
submarines.
USNI News reported on these latest details about the Navy's
next attack submarine following a third-quarter earnings call with Rex Geveden,
CEO of BWX Technologies on Nov. 2, 2020. BWX Technologies is a major subcontractor to General Dynamics
Electric Boat on the Columbia class and has also
supported work on other submarine programs, including supplying
the nuclear reactors that power the Navy's Virginia, Seawolf, and Los Angeles classes.
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"We do expect it will be a larger type of
submarine, probably in the size class of the Columbia, but there’s not much
more to tell than that. But we’re working with our Navy customer in what that
would look like and how we could take that into production,” Rex Geveden said,
according to USNI News. “It has the moniker
SSN(X) until it gets a class name, and there’s some thought, discussion, and
analysis. It would be the follow-on to the Virginia fast-attack
submarine, and it would feather in sometime in the late 2030s."
USNI News said that despite
Geveden using the word "larger," what he was referring to was the
overall width of the submarine, rather than its length or displacement. This
would make sense considering that the Columbia class boats are
expected to have a submerged displacement of almost 23,310 tons. This is more
than twice that of existing Virginia class boats, early
block models of which displace around 7,800 tons, and even more than that of
the unique, extended-length Seawolf class spy
submarine USS Jimmy Carter, which has a displacement
of just under 12,160 tons, according to the Navy.
That the SSN(X)'s width
would be greater than that of the Virginia class would also be
well in line with past Navy statements about this future design, dating back
to the first public disclosure of its plans for
these submarines in 2018, at which time the service described the notional
design as Seawolf-like. The beam, or widest
point, of those advanced attack submarines, which have seen been modified and
reconfigured to be better equipped to carry out intelligence-gathering missions and other
specialized activities, is approximately 40 feet, while that of the
Virginia class is just 34 feet. Previous reports have indicated that the Columbias will have a beam of
43 feet.
A wider design could allow
for the insertion of additional sound-dampening features between the inner
hull, where the submarine's systems are and where its crew works, and the outer
hull. Reducing the acoustic signature of any
submarine is important for making it harder
for opponents to detect and track, which, in turn, makes it more survivable.
Of course, the size of the
inner hull could also be increased, which would provide added space for various
kinds of equipment and weapons, This coulda also make it easier to integrate
future technologies and capabilities, such as the ability to deploy and
recover unmanned underwater vehicles.
It's worth noting that
the Seawolfs, as originally designed,
were dedicated hunter-killers meant to engage
hostile ships and submarines and have eight torpedo tubes, along with the
ability to carry up to 50 Mk 48 heavyweight torpedoes or torpedo
tube-launched Tomahawk land-attack cruise
missiles. By comparison, the existing blocks of the more multi-mission
focused Virginias have just four
torpedo tubes and have a standard loadout of 37 torpedoes, though they do also
have Vertical Launch System cells to fire Tomahawks.
Sjekk utskyting av Harpoon fra denne ubåten som filmer skuddet som foregår i periskopdybde: https://tinyurl.com/y5oeftyw
Med en horisont på noen få nautiske mil trenger ubåten måldata fordi denne type rakett ikke er egnet til skyting innenfor periskophorisonten. (Red.)
A 2018 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the
Navy was, at that time, targeting an SSN(X) design that would be able to carry
up 62 torpedoes or other torpedo tube-launched weapons, including anti-ship
missiles, such as the UGM-84 Harpoon, a well as future
anti-ship cruise missile weapons, and would not necessarily have a vertical
launch capability at all.
"Specifically, the Navy indicates that the
next-generation attack submarine should be faster, stealthier, and able to
carry more torpedoes than the Virginia class – similar to
the Seawolf class
submarine," CBO's report said of the projected design as a whole.
"CBO therefore assumed that the SSN(X) would be a Seawolf-sized SSN, which
displaces about 9,100 tons when submerged, and would have an all-new design in
keeping with the Navy’s description of it as a ‘fast, lethal, next-generation
attack submarine.’"
It also makes good sense that the companies
working with the Navy now on SSN(X), such as BWX Technologies, would be looking
to leverage any features from the Columbia class design that
could offer improved performance and increased stealthiness for the SSN(X).
This all raises the distinct possibility that the Navy's future attack
submarine could have a shortened derivative of the Columbia hullform at its
core, but one optimized for the hunter-killer mission rather than nuclear
deterrence patrols.
That being said, attack
and ballistic missile submarines have very different mission sets with very different
general performance requirements. The former needs speed and maneuverability to
hunt, while the latter is expected to cruise at lower speeds for extended
periods of time while endeavoring to stay undetected at all costs. As such, the
SSN(X) could easily have a markedly different configuration even if shares a
significant portion of its hull and subsystems design with the Columbia class.
In addition, there have
been discussions about developing a Large Payload Submarine, also derived from
the Columbia, as something of a
successor to the four Ohio class submarines
converted into guided missile boats, which also have significant additional
multi-mission capabilities that you can read about in more detail in this past War Zone feature. Any significant
additional commonality between the Large Payload Submarine and SSN(X) might
also raise the possibility of potentially merging the two designs.
No matter what, the SSN(X) design, and the
requirements driving it, are likely to evolve, at least to some degree, in the
future. The Navy is still very early in the process of crafting this submarine,
requesting a very small $1 million for the project in the research and
development portion of its most recent budget request for the 2021 Fiscal
Year.
There also remain very real questions about how the Navy plans to budget for the design and construction of a new class of advanced and potentially very expensive attack submarines together with its other priorities. The service had run into similar issues with the Seawolfs and, together with general defense spending drawdowns following the end of the Cold War, ended up only buying three of those submarines. The first-in-class USS Seawolf and its sister USS Connecticut both cost $6 billion in the end, while the Jimmy Carter, which, as already mentioned, is a unique subclass unto itself, was even more expensive.
They remain the costliest
attack submarines ever built anywhere in the world. However, their advanced
capabilities, including their especially good performance while operating under thick ice, such as in the Arctic region, mean they are in very
high demand within the Navy.
All of this also comes as
the Navy is now pushing a proposal to expand the size of its overall fleet to
500 ships and submarines, up from less than 300 now, by 2045, another questionably
ambitious plan that you can read about more in these past War Zone pieces.
Still, the Navy is clearly
very committed to its new attack submarine plans, at least at present, which it
feels are critical to countering expanding and increasingly active Russian and Chinese submarine fleets, as well as other naval
developments in both of those countries. China has been on a naval construction blitz in the past few
years, including the stunningly rapid construction of large capital ships,
including aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, and destroyers, as well as various submarines.
"The advantage we
have in the undersea is an advantage that we need to not only maintain, but we
need to expand. I want to own the undersea for forever because I know that I
can be really lethal from the undersea," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral
Mike Gilday said in October, according to USNI News. "When you think
attack boat, you’re thinking, that can move around the timing and tempo of an
operational commander’s need to deliver ordinance on target in a timely
fashion. And so it’s got to be a fast sub as well."
As it stands now, the Navy's next class of attack
submarine is set to be even larger and far more advanced than the Navy's
prized Seawolf class, which remains among
the most capable submarines in the world.
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