It’s been widely known that the United States Navy’s most important ship-building project
is the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.
In this episode of Learning Military, I’ll share with you what makes this new class of submarines
so important. What do we know about the capabilities of these ships? What
are their specifications? What are some of the challenges facing the Navy in getting it produced?
As usual, I’ve scoured a number of government documents and academic resources
to give you the best information. But first, just a friendly reminder to like the video,
subscribe and check out Patreon to support this channel.
When it comes to the nuclear weapons platforms employed by land, sea, and air, what makes
submarines so unique is their survivability in the event of a nuclear attack. The idea
is that the enemy won’t know where our ballistic missile submarines (or boomers) are. Therefore,
our boomers almost guarantee that there will be a devastating nuclear response from the United
States. For some time, the responsibility of delivering that nuclear response
has been with the Ohio-Class ballistic missile submarines. First commissioned in 1981, these
submarines have been a big part of the United States’ nuclear deterrence. However, it is time
for the Ohio-class to be decommissioned. There is new technology that is now available which
is needed to ensure the survivability of boomers, especially in the event of a great power conflict.
Here is what we know about these submarines. An important specification
is that the Columbia-class is going to be equipped with 16 missile tubes
rather than the 20 usable tubes on the Ohio-class. Additionally,
the Columbia class will have X-shaped stern control surfaces and sail-mounted dive planes.
When completed, the Columbia-class submarines will be the largest submarine that the United
States has ever produced. Don’t get too excited by that fact though because it’s
not like that the Columbia-class will be as large as the Russian Typhoon class,
it’s just going to be one foot larger in diameter than Ohio-Class submarines.
One thing to get excited about though is its new electric drive system.
In other nuclear power submarines, the nuclear reactor generates heat and steam which causes
turbines to turn. Reduction gears are in place in a mechanical drive system which
allow the screws to spin at the necessary revolutions per minute. In a study by MIT,
it was said that with a mechanical drive system, “80-percent of the total reactor
power is used exclusively for propulsion”. By using a purely electric drive system,
this will allow more efficient use of created power and will cause the sub to be more silent.
We also know that there are 12 submarines planned to be built in this new class. It’s important
to point out that while this is obviously less than the 14 nuclear weapons equipped Ohio-Class,
the navy is quick to point out that this won’t reduce the number of deterrent patrols
that boomers will be out on. The reason why is in the case of the Ohio-class submarines,
each sub has had to through a massive overhaul in the midpoint of their life. This overhaul included
various upgrades but most importantly it included the refueling on the ship’s nuclear reactor.
The columbia-class in contrast will not need a refuel to its nuclear reactor
over the expected 42-year life span of each boat.
The first ship of the class, the USS Colombia, is expected to cost about 14.4
billion dollars to buy. 8.4 billion of that is for the actual construction and about 6. Billion
is for plans, detailed designing, and nonrecurring engineering costs for the class. Commonly,
the lead boat is more expensive, but we know that to build all of the ships, the Pentagon expects
to pay (when calculating for inflation) about $133.2 billion. That is quite a bit of money, but
remember, this is a very important program to the navy and to our ability to deter other countries.
There are a lot of things that people are keeping their eyes on. The first of which
is the schedule that these new submarines are built. The first patrol that the USS Colombia
is expected to take place in 2031 when the first Ohio class boat is decommissioned. However, the
Colombia class has already experienced some issues and delays that put that schedule at risk. For
example, in 2018, faulty welds were found on the missile tubes for the USS Colombia. Then there are
issues with the decrease in manufacturing caused by the pandemic. In one report, the manufacturer
of the missile tubes also saw a 30% decrease in productivity during the pandemic. That decrease
in productivity originally amounted to a delay of a few months. However, efforts are being made to
make up time in the project. The hope that these efforts will take the delay from months to weeks.
When it comes to manufacturing, there isn’t much that can be done to pick up the slack.
After all, the submarine construction base is pretty limited. There are only two shipyards
in the country that have the ability to build nuclear-powered submarines. With the Virginia
class attack submarines being constructed simultaneously, there is concern that not
only is there no one to help pick up the slack but that these shipyards might be being asked too much
to produce the Virginia and Colombia class simultaneously. Bottlenecks in
the construction could impact not just the Colombia class but the Virgina class as well.
There are examples of this being an issue as well. In a 2019 press report,
it was noted that the Virgina class at one point was hailed as being on-cost and on-schedule
but those were being built at a rate of one boat per year. When the Virginia class
started to be built at a rate of two per year, they stopped being delivered on time.
There are also some concerns that there will be technical challenges that cause setbacks,
especially with the new electric drive system. New classes produced for the navy have been plagued
with some technical challenges as of late. The LCS has had issues with propulsion, the Ford
Class carriers had issues with its electromagnetic catapult system, and the Zumwalt class has had its
share of problems too. It’s quite understandable that there would be concerns with this new class.
On the flip side, the navy has been doing some prototyping of the electric drive system.
In a press report that came out last year, Admiral Frank Caldwell,
the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program director, stated that they put their prototype through tests
to simulate some of the most stressful conditions a sub could encounter. When discussing those tests
he said that the prototype “performed flawlessly. It exceeded all of our design expectations.”
Another positive note is that some of the systems and technology that will be used on the Colombia
class are currently being employed on the Virginia-class attack submarines.
This means that these systems have already been proved at sea.
While this should help reduce the delays, I can’t stress how tight the timetable appears to be
and that the Navy can’t absorb additional delays if it wasn’t to get the lead class built
conduct sea trials, and get ready for Colombia’s first patrol in 2031.
The final concern to mention regarding the ship is the risk of cost growth.
One can look at Department of Defense programs and see that in the case of many of these programs,
the actual cost was MUCH higher than the expected cost. Both the Congressional Budget
Office and the U.S. Government Accountability Office have each expressed concerns with how
expensive this program is actually going to turn out to be. In 2019, the Navy was 50%
confident with procurement costs being accurate. That means that they thought there was a 50%
chance that it could be more expensive than they thought, but also a 50% chance that it
could be less than what they anticipate. There should be a new estimate produced this year
which should have some more information regarding what they expect the cost to be.
If the costs do run high, the navy might have to make some hard decisions. Do you remember at the
beginning where I said that the Colombia class is the Navy’s most important ship-building project?
That means, if it runs high, some programs will have their funding cut to make room for the
Colombia class. There was some time though where the Navy’s shipbuilding project was about $14
billion a year meaning that the Colombia class could take up near half of the entire Navy’s
shipbuilding budget. However, that has been raised up to almost $20 billion so it won’t take up
as much but that’s still a substantial proportion of the budget. There are some lofty plans that the
DoD and the Navy have regarding shipbuilding projects for the future and they’ll need every
dollar that they can to make them a reality. If Colombia becomes much more expensive, it
could put some of those plans in jeopardy if the shipbuilding budget isn’t significantly increased.
There have been some efforts to combat this threat to other projects or to reduce
overall costs by proposing that fewer than 12 submarines be produced in this class.
Some of the proposals range from anywhere from 6-10 boats. Again, these submarines
and their role in deterring adversaries are important. I wouldn’t anticipate a reduction
unless the overall costs run way higher than anticipated.
I wish that there was more that I could share with you regarding these
new ballistic missile submarines. As you can imagine though, there is
a lot of information about them that is highly classified. With what we do know,
I am looking forward to the capabilities of these ships and what they’ll be able to do at sea.
That being said, while these submarines are designed to lie in wait to launch their
nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. I genuinely hope they will never be given the order to launch.
The amount of destruction that just one of these submarines can unleash is greater than anything
we can imagine. Let’s hope their presence at sea is enough to deter any adversaries.
Well I hope you enjoyed this episode of Learning MIlitry there are more episodes coming soon
so make sure that you subscribe for more. Also, like the video and check Patreon
to help support me and the channel. Until next time, I’ve got your six.