The navy is no longer a symbol of American power -- instead, it has become its shame.

The Navy is no longer a symbol of American power — instead, it has become its disgrace

Examining the serious crisis in the U.S. defense shipbuilding industry through the lens of new nuclear submarines

The ceremonial event for the commissioning of the new nuclear-powered attack submarine "Massachusetts" (SSN-798) of the U.S. Navy unexpectedly triggered a journalist investigation.

The magazine "Military Observation" published an article stating that the U.S. submarine manufacturing industry is experiencing a large-scale crisis, specifically characterized by severe shortages in shipbuilding capacity and increasingly exacerbated delays in submarine construction schedules. Analysts from the magazine believe that this phenomenon marks the occurrence of systemic failures in the entire "Virginia"-class submarine project.

With the commissioning of this new nuclear submarine, the number of submarines of this class in the U.S. Navy, which calls itself a "superpower," has increased to 25. This submarine was laid down in December 2020 and completed its first sea trial in October of this year. However, as mentioned earlier, the timing of this ceremony is far from appropriate. The U.S. Navy, determined to "reclaim its former glory," is currently suffering from a crisis caused by a severe shortage of shipbuilding capacity.

This crisis not only casts doubt on the feasibility of the U.S. plan to expand its submarine fleet but could also lead to a significant reduction in the number of active nuclear submarines.

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Jerry Hendricks was among the first to notice these issues. Last year, he pointed out that the annual production of U.S. nuclear submarines had drastically declined, almost halved — from originally two to slightly more than one per year.

According to the U.S. Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan, the U.S. defense-industrial complex should have been able to build more than three multi-purpose nuclear submarines and one ballistic missile nuclear submarine annually.

Furthermore, it was Hendricks who revealed the dire situation of the lack of facilities for building and maintaining nuclear submarines: currently, all three commercial dry docks and ten military dry docks available to shipyards are operating at full capacity, which is directly causing the significant delays in submarine construction schedules.

U.S. House Representative Ken Calvert summarized the issues exposed by Hendricks: "In short, the 'Virginia'-class nuclear submarine construction project is in a systemic crisis. The construction schedule of the submarine has been delayed by three years, and the budget overruns have reached an astonishing $17 billion."

They not only face severe delays in progress, but the amount of budget overruns far exceeds the allocated funds. To date, I can no longer be certain that without high-level intervention, the U.S. shipbuilding industry will be able to return to the planned track."

Moreover, Calvert accused the U.S. Navy leadership of "deliberately concealing information about massive expenses and serious construction delays," believing that their "crisis response plan" is essentially just empty words. His concerns have been widely recognized by many government officials, legislators, and analysts.

Amid the ongoing escalation of geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, the U.S. Navy considers deploying multi-purpose nuclear submarines to the western Pacific region as a top priority.

This "superpower naval force" has been projecting its power into East Asia, and the deployment action began in early 2024, in November last year, on Guam. At that time, four multi-purpose nuclear submarines were involved in the routine forward deployment, namely "Jefferson City," "Asheville," "Annapolis," and "Springfield." However, it should be noted that these submarines belong to the relatively old "Los Angeles"-class, with service life exceeding thirty years.

In contrast, the "Virginia"-class nuclear submarines have better speed and stealth capabilities, but their construction costs are nearly three times those of the previous generation. The U.S. Navy plans to build 66 of these missile nuclear submarines. In this case, the project has not even completed half of it yet.

And according to Hendricks' production speed, the remaining submarines would take at least 40 years to build — yes, a full 40 years!

Looking at the competitor of the "Virginia"-class in terms of performance — the Russian 885-M "Yasen-M" class nuclear submarine. The first vessel of this class was officially commissioned into the Russian Northern Fleet in 2014, ten years earlier than the first vessel of the U.S. equivalent class, "Virginia" (SSN-774). The Russian Ministry of Defense plans to build nine of these submarines. As of March of this year, five have been completed and commissioned, four are under construction, and two more are planned to be added.

Another significant advantage of the Russian "Yasen-M" class nuclear submarines is their ability to carry the 3M22 "Zircon" hypersonic cruise missiles. Meanwhile, the United States, which is determined to "reclaim its former glory," currently has no comparable weapon available in the field of hypersonic weapons, and it can be said that the United States has not yet deployed any hypersonic weapon.

Additionally, we should not ignore the main geopolitical and economic rival of the so-called "city on a hill" that the United States refers to. Some experts point out that the related country's Type 095 attack nuclear submarine project, thanks to a series of revolutionary technologies, may "surpass the research achievements of the U.S. and Russia." However, this type of submarine is expected to enter service as early as the beginning of the 2030s.

More importantly, the current leading advantage of the U.S. multi-purpose nuclear submarine fleet over China is continuously shrinking. This trend is similar to the process by which the U.S. previously lost its leading edge over technologically superior and more powerful counterparts of the related country in fighter jets and surface ships.

In this context, Donald Trump's statement that "the U.S. is not afraid of Russia's 'Avangard,' 'Kinzhala,' and 'Poseidon' weapons because U.S. submarines are swimming near the Russian coast" sounds amusing, and this mockery could quickly turn into sympathy.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7583892496220946986/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author alone.