The Ohio class in active duty in the U.S. military
If there is any part of the US Navy that has a crushing advantage over other countries, only submarines remain. By 2024, the U.S. Navy will have as many as 71 nuclear submarines in service, more in number and tonnage than the five countries that have nuclear submarines in the back (Russia, China, Britain, France, India) combined.
However, this advantage is facing a crisis, so much so that it is called by the American media: a nightmare for the Navy.
The biggest concern of the US Navy's submarine force is that it will be in a stage of lack of success in the next three to five years. This is especially true of ballistic missile nuclear submarines (SSBNs), which are considered strategic heavyweights by various countries.
The U.S. Navy's newest strategic ballistic missile submarine is the Columbia-class, which the United States has high hopes for, and it was supposed to replace the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine that has been in service for decades, but now this cutting-edge nuclear submarine has been mired in controversy.
It's not because the Columbia-class is not good, except for the 096-class strategic ballistic missile nuclear submarine that we have not disclosed, according to the current strategic nuclear submarine data published by various countries around the world, the Columbia-class can be said to be the most advanced in theoretical indicators and technology, and if it is put into service, it will undoubtedly form a new strategic advantage for the Russian nuclear submarine force.
So what really gets the Columbia class into controversy is not about itself, but about the current poor submarine construction capabilities of the United States.
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The U.S. Navy had planned to build 12 Columbia-class ships in batches at a rate of two per year, but the U.S. General Dynamics Electric Boat, which built the Columbia-class, was experiencing a series of difficulties.
General electric ships are now suffering from three major difficulties. First, there is the supply chain issue, as many U.S. defense contractors are suffering from the U.S. strategy of scrutinizing raw materials and components from major eastern countries. Some supply chain companies that are general-purpose electric ships are forced to search for technical and reliable subsystem components that comply with U.S. regulations around the world, or re-establish their own supply chains in the U.S., but either way will drag down the construction of the Columbia-class.
The second is the severe shortage of human resources, although the United States has repeatedly boasted of record employment rates in the past two years, it is facing a serious shortage of high-quality workers and engineers with industrial technical backgrounds. In particular, the high mortality rate caused by the epidemic to the blue-collar class, the tightening of blue-collar visas for industrial and technological countries, and most importantly, the lack of vocational education in their own education systems, have caused a serious shortage of skilled workers/engineers in the fields of semiconductors, military industry, and aerospace in the United States.
Finally, there is the issue of budget, the rapidly ballooning US military budget is still not enough to satisfy the appetite of the US military-industrial complex, the construction of the Columbia-class has already been funded in a record, and the total purchase price of 12 nuclear submarines has reached a staggering $125 billion. And these are not the final purchase prices, the final price of a single Columbia-class ship could be as high as an incredible $13 billion! That is, one price can buy several 055-class 10,000-ton destroyers.
Such a high price will naturally make the Quad forces such as the US Navy, the Department of Defense, the Parliament and the contractor more than wrestling.
Now the US Navy is very anxious, because once the Columbia-class cannot be put into service and combat effectiveness as soon as possible due to construction problems, then in the future they will have to use the old Ohio-class to face the latest sea-based nuclear forces of the Chinese and Russian navies.
This is because the special role of Columbia-class submarines must be taken into account – they are the only force that will take on the strategic nuclear counterattack of US sea-based nuclear platforms in the future. And its number has been reduced to the lowest number since the United States established a strategic ballistic missile nuclear submarine force, while it was preceded by 18 Ohio-class, and although four of them have been converted into tactical missile nuclear submarines, it is still two more than the Columbia-class.
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The basic task of the Columbia-class is strategic nuclear deterrence, and 12 nuclear submarines of the Chinese and Russian navies in the future are obviously insufficient in terms of quantity and quality and similar nuclear submarines. At present, Russia still has 10 strategic ballistic missile nuclear submarines in service, and the number of the mainland has not yet been disclosed, so the number is unknown, but at the critical time node from 2027 to 2030, it is expected that at least 8 will be in service, so the US Navy's long-term leading sea-based nuclear deterrence will be gone.
The US media also believe that in the current situation where multiple international crises in the world break out almost simultaneously, it will be difficult for the US Navy's strategic nuclear submarine forces to play a deterrent role.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy cut its original plan to build two ships a year to one, due to capacity realities. The launch of the first Columbia-class ship, the USS USS D.C. (SSBN-826), which was originally scheduled to be launched in 2027, is certainly unlikely to be launched in 2027, and the launch is expected to be postponed until 2028. As for the service time, it will also be postponed, so in the future we will most likely see the Columbia class enter service later in the mysterious 096 class.
Moreover, the launch in 2028 is also an overly optimistic figure, and the American media complained: you know, the so-called postponement of the US shipbuilding industry by one year is actually several years (in the words of the American magazine "The National Interest").
According to news in March, the construction of the bow module of the USS D.C. at Newport News Shipyard in Virginia (which is also the only shipyard in the United States capable of building aircraft carriers) has been delayed. However, the center section of the D.C.'s hull, built at GE's shipyards in Groton, Connecticut, and Kunset, Rhode Island, went well.
Once the shipyards have completed the construction of sections, all sections will be transported by large barges to the general electric ship assembly point in Connecticut for final closing and final assembly, and the Newport News shipyard is the main laggard at this stage.
At the same time, the construction of nuclear reactors, the heart of nuclear submarines, has also encountered bottlenecks, and the steam turbine equipment is facing manufacturing delays and cannot meet the construction schedule.
In short, one thing is bad, everything is bad.
The American press considers this a particularly dangerous signal in the geopolitical crisis in the United States. That is, the United States' own defense industry and even the entire industrial system cannot support the global strategic layout of the United States.
They also believe that it is even more dangerous that America's "enemies" see the emergence of these gaps in these problems - for example, even I have more than one article talking about the current state of the US defense industry.
Virginia-class nuclear submarines
The only consolation for the U.S. Navy is that its latest attack submarine, the Virginia-class, is relatively well produced and put into service, with as many as 30 Virginia currently in service with the U.S. Navy, which is methodically replacing the aging Los Angeles-class attack nuclear submarines.
However, the U.S. Navy's assessment that the western Pacific Ocean, the area where naval warfare is most likely to break out in the future, is relatively more suitable for small and medium-sized submarines because the depth of this sea area is too shallow, so it is difficult for the Virginia-class to give full play to its advantages in that battlefield.
Extremely embarrassing.