The U.S. Navy has big plans for modernizing existing major end items. The maritime branch is excited about the next-generation DDG(X) destroyer and the F/A-XX next-generation fighter jet. Now, the SSN(X) futuristic submarine that will replace the Virginia-class boats is experiencing delays. The SSN(X) may not come to fruition until the early 2040s, which is hard to fathom. Who knows what the U.S. military will look like in two decades?
101210-N-5538K-056 PHILIPPINE SEA (Dec. 10, 2010) The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Houston (SSN 713) takes part in a photo exercise as part of Keen Sword 2011. Keen Sword is a joint, bilateral exercise designed to strengthen Japan-U.S. military operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Casey H. Kyhl)
So, what will happen with this new submarine design? Will it become a victim to budget pressures?
Can the Program Receive the Necessary Funding Until the 2040s?
The problem is that the SSN(X) is not receiving enough research and development funds in the FY25 defense budget. The experimental sub-program will likely not begin full-time work at the shipyard until 2031. The United States may have a bigger unmanned presence on Mars at that time – just to show you what futuristic feats can happen in the next seven years that don’t involve the Navy.
SSN(X) Is Still Receiving Significant Amounts of Dollars
The Navy is requesting $586.9 million for SSN(X) design work in FY25, up from the $544.7 million asked for FY24. So, we are talking over half a billion dollars to get this project off the ground. That is expensive research and development for the Navy that is already pumping exorbitant dollars into the Ford-class carrier and maintaining existing flat-tops which costs a pretty penny.
Victim of a Fickle Congress?
Funding for these next-generation programs may take a hit in the coming years. It isn’t easy to convince Congress to open up the purse strings for a submarine that will take two decades to build.
This is an election year, and legislators are trying to protect current manufacturing jobs in the defense industrial base, not forecast the number of new employment positions that don’t exist.
Seawolf-Class Submarine . Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The SSN(X) is known as the Next-generation Attack Submarine. ‘X’ means the design has not been determined yet.
Swift and Silent for SSN(X)
The Congressional Research Service describes the SSN(X) with the following description:
“The SSN(X)…will be designed to counter the growing threat posed by near peer adversary competition for undersea supremacy. It will provide greater speed, increased horizontal [i.e., torpedo-room] payload capacity, improved acoustic superiority and non-acoustic signatures, and higher operational availability. SSN(X) will conduct full spectrum undersea warfare and be able to coordinate with a larger contingent of off-hull vehicles, sensors, and friendly forces.”
Don’t Forget the SEALs
Well, that’s fairly vague but par for the course when describing future ships and submarines. I would like to see SSN(X) designers develop the optimum way to deliver SEALs to battle in 2040 because Naval Special Operators will always play a huge role in overall naval tactics in future conflicts.
Take the Best From Other Submarine Programs
The Congressional Research Service also said in its latest report that the Navy “wants the SSN(X) to incorporate the speed and payload of the Navy’s fast and heavily armed Seawolf (SSN-21) class SSN design, the acoustic quietness and sensors of the Virginia-class design, and the operational availability and service life of the Columbia-class design.”
The Virginia-class attack submarine USS Virginia departs for a six-week underway. During this deployment, Virginia will undergo an Operational Reactor Safeguard Examination and a Tactical Readiness Evaluation to assess the submarine’s reactor along with its capacity to combat casualties through damage control.
Undersea Warfare Should Be a Priority
Now that sounds cool. Why not improve existing designs hugely by the 2040s? Undersea warfare is going to become more important as the Navy responds to the future threat environment. Conflict could occur in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, the Atlantic, and even the Arctic. We haven’t seen these types of scenarios since the Cold War and the Navy will have to invest time, money, and resources to ensure the submarine fleet remains relevant in the coming decades.
SSN(X): What Happens Now? Welcome to ‘Zombie’ Status
It would also be nice to have a new stand-off cruise missile that is nuclear-tipped to replace the Tomahawk and for the SSN(X) to deploy submarine-launched hypersonic weapons. The missiles must progress along with the design, research and development efforts with the SSN(X).
All told, the SSN(X) program will be only as good as its funding and priorities, which the White House and Congress laid down, and how the submarine is used in various future warfare documents, such as the National Security Strategy (NSS). There will be a new NSS under Donald Trump or Kamala Harris,, and the Navy hopes that its next-generation modernization program is funded and prioritized.
But, of course, nothing is certain. At least for now, SSN(X) looks like a zombie submarine project, with no clear direction or call to go forward made just yet. And that’s a problem.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
404NotFound
September 27, 2024 at 7:22 pm
Submarines like aircraft carriers are for the stinking rich. Like US.
If ya not rich but still like worshipping wars, then develop underwater tsunami drones such as the kanyon (poseidon).
Those underwater drones can still be put to use after a long period of inactivity hiding near hostile shores for like say ten, twenty or more years.
That provides plausible deniability as nobody can pin a finger of blame on ya.
Let’s say before USSR collapsed in 1991 the soviet Navy deployed a poseidon prototype near haifa.
Then in 2024 the device went into action while blinken was on a visit.
That’s like 33 years in the making. Joe biden won’t be able to do a thing even if be strongly succeeds in smelling a fully rotten kipper.
Better than the 2022 nordstream blasts.
Jacksonian Libertarian
September 28, 2024 at 12:00 am
A light AIP utility submarine that can stealthily crawl (tracks?) up on a beach or port at night and roll-on-roll-off 100 tons of cargo in minutes, would be a game changer.
Submarines are one of the few Industrial Age dumb weapons that still have utility in the Information Age.
The problem is the US Navy is doing it all wrong with Big Expensive Nuclear Boats that take weeks to get anywhere and are so few in number that only a dozen are active at any one time.
What the Navy needs are about 200 small (1,000 ton), Cheap ($100M), Lightly armed (10 weapons), AIP Utility subs, that can crawl up on an uncontested beach and deliver 100 tons of Marines, and serve as a “strategically dispersed” node in a submarine network.
The Marine Corps is desperately in need of a stealthy way to insert themselves onto the Battlefield for their FD 2030 (island hardpoint) doctrine, and the Navy needs better coverage, dispersion, and stealthy cargo capacity.
Imagine 100 tons of FPV drones stealthily delivered to the Battlefield…Surprise is the most powerful tactical advantage.
Modern air defenses have become too powerful for aircraft to fly over the battlefield, but the Navy is buried in their “Sunk Costs Fallacy” Aircraft Carrier Battle Group Strategy.
bobb
September 28, 2024 at 2:43 pm
Zombie Land.
Is that prophetic or What.
William branham, deceased american faith healer and evangelical minister, once predicted “a woman would one day come to the most powerful office” but also said america’s demise is ensured.
Today, the world stands on the edge of the big abyss with biden celebrating killing of nasrallah.
Little does biden know he’s repeating history.
In 1914, the kaiser and germany kickstarted ww1.
In 1939, (in europe) hitler and germany ignited ww2.
Today, biden and america are about to set alight ww3.
THE zombie and america herding the world to zombie land and zombie world.
RTColorado
September 30, 2024 at 11:19 am
The lack of “History Knowledge” is astounding. Commentors babble about loosely strung conspiracy theories and as Coriolanus says “…rubbing the poor itch of your opinion make yourselves scabs?”. The historical correlations with today’s times is Great Britian’s mistake of shutting down its fighter plane production in the mid-1930’s, which very nearly cost them the war.
danf51
September 30, 2024 at 2:18 pm
Submarines are indeed critical. I’m not sure the answer is to give more money to the same crowd that has run the current submarine program into the ground.
Now we hear that defective welds in Virgina class boats have been slipping through the cracks for years.
Not sure what the answer is, but I’d start with a new leadership team. Much of the rot seems to be at the top.