New US Navy nuclear destroyers and submarines much more expensive than expected

In July of this year, while speaking at the Government Contracting Pricing Summit, Assistant Air Force Undersecretary for Acquisition Maj. Gen. Cameron Holt stunned his audience by saying that China produced its military equipment “6 times faster and 20 times cheaper” than the American defense industry did. And it seems that this trajectory, however untenable for Washington and its armies, is not destined to evolve positively. In effect, as estimated by the US Congressional Budget Committee, the future ships which will equip the US Navy in the coming decade, will be much more expensive than current planning suggests.

Thus, according to the commission, the future US Navy destroyer, designated DD(x) and intended to take over from the first generation Arleigh Burke destroyers and the latest Ticonderoga class cruisers, could cost not more than 2,4 billion $ as planned by the American Navy, but $3,4 billion, an increase of $1 billion and more than 40%, this without taking into account armaments, on the basis of an extrapolation of production costs compared to screws of the smaller Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers, and without the effect of inflation having been taken into account. At the same time, the future nuclear attack submarine of the SSN(x) program, which must reinforce the SSN of the Virginia class and which will, like the SeaWolf, specialized in anti-submarine warfare, will cost between $6,2 and $7,4 billion per unit, a significant increase compared to the $5,4 billion forecast by current planning, and especially almost twice as expensive as the current SSN of the Virginia Block V class which already caps at $3,2 billion per unit, more than twice the price of a SSN of the Suffren class which enters service in within the National Navy.

Obviously, such projections are more than problematic for the US Navy, which aims to convince Congress to support it in an effort to increase its format from the 290 ships currently in service, towards a format of 355 ships by end of the decade, and 450 ships by 2045; this to be able to cope with the rise of Chinese power which, in the naval field, can rely on production that is both very dynamic and economical. The People's Liberation Army Navy thus puts into service around ten destroyers and frigates each year, compared to 3 ships of these types for the US Navy. Furthermore, as previously stated, these additional costs are expressed in constant $, and do not take into account the effects of the high inflation which has been affecting the United States for many months, and which is beginning to pose significant problems in terms of military planning, by nature expressed in current $.

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