Delivery of two new US Navy attack submarines to counter China’s growing surface fleet is running as much as two years late, service budget documents showed.
The USS Idaho was given a ceremonial launch on March 16, complete with the breaking of a bottle of waters from Idaho lakes next to its bow.
However, it is not actually scheduled for delivery until September next year, more than two years after the goal of June last year that was outlined in 2020, the documents showed.
Photo: Reuters
Similarly, the USS New Jersey — which the Navy projected would be delivered in January 2022 and then in September last year — is now scheduled for September this year, said US Representative Joe Courtney, one of the US House of Representative’s top submarine advocates. Construction contracts for both vessels were awarded in April 2014. The USS Hyman G. Rickover was delivered in October, at least nine months late.
The Virginia-class submarine is armed with land-attack missiles and torpedoes and, starting later this year, anti-ship Tomahawk cruise missiles. The subs are intended to give the US a crucial advantage in any conflict with China.
Overall, delivery dates for Virginia-class subs are running an estimated 24 to 36 months past the contracted dates, according to results of the Navy’s new 45-day ship review made available to Bloomberg News in advance of its release this week.
The persistent delays underscore some lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced the shipbuilding workforce, and a dwindling reservoir of expertise and slowed component deliveries.
The subs are built by General Dynamics Corp and HII.
A spokesperson for General Dynamics, the prime contractor, referred all comment on the program to the Navy.
In the report accompanying the fiscal 2024 defense spending bill signed into law last month, congressional lawmakers criticized the Virginia-class program for delays and cost overruns that are expected to exceed US$3 billion and could ripple into the program to build the US’ new nuclear-missile class sub.
“Concerns remain about construction cost and schedule performance, which impact not only the construction and delivery” of the Virginia fleet but also the 12-vessel Columbia-class sub construction schedule, which utilizes the same workforce, the lawmakers said.
The 45-day review said General Dynamics would require more than 2,200 new hires per year over the next 10 years to sustain both submarine programs.
The Virginia-class delays could also undermine the AUKUS partnership involving the US, Australia and the UK if they are not reversed soon.
Under the AUKUS agreement, starting in about 2032 the US Navy is supposed to sell Australia the first of as many as five existing or new Virginia-class subs. Those vessels would fill a gap until delivery in the late 2030s of the first new vessels to be built in the UK and Australia with technology from the US and UK.
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