The U.S. Navy is set to commission its newest Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), during a ceremony in Boston Harbour.
The commissioning event will be led by senior civilian and military figures, including Navy General Counsel David Denton, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Admiral William Houston, director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The submarine’s sponsor, Sheryl Sandberg, is scheduled to give the traditional order to “man our ship and bring her to life,” formally bringing the vessel into active service.
USS Massachusetts is the 25th Virginia-class submarine and the seventh Block IV variant, built under a teaming arrangement between General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding. It was christened in May 2023 and represents the 12th Virginia-class submarine delivered by Newport News.
The submarine is the eighth U.S. Navy vessel to carry the name Massachusetts, following a lineage that includes ships dating back to the late 18th century. The most recent predecessor, the battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59), served extensively during the Second World War and is now preserved as a museum.
Virginia-class submarines are designed for a range of missions, including intelligence gathering, anti-submarine warfare and strike operations. The Navy states that the class incorporates enhanced stealth, advanced sensors and special operations capabilities to support modern naval requirements.
Each vessel displaces around 7,800 tonnes, measures approximately 377 feet in length and is powered by a nuclear reactor designed to last for the lifetime of the submarine without refuelling, according to the U.S. Navy. The class forms a central part of the U.S. Navy’s undersea warfare capability as it continues to expand and modernise its fleet.
Virgina was laid down in 1999.. commissioned in 2004… by 2026 they have delivered 25 boats… a U.S. boat has a 35 year life.. they are mean to have a mandated 66 SSNs.
This is a catastrophic failure, that often goes under the radar.. there are now only 51 commissioned US SSNs of those 23 are LA class, and 4 of those have been moved to the active reserve and are simply in the process of being stricken from the list so there are only 47 active commissioned boats and within 7 years the other 19 LA will be gone at the rate of about 2-3 per year. The two years after that will see the lost of the 2 of the 3 seawolf class as well. So by 2035 ( 9 years) the USN will see 25 of its 51 SSNs age out, not decommissioned by choice but age out.
Even if they increase there output over the next 9 years and manage to deliver every ordered boat ( unlikely on historic timelines) that will give them 18 more boats.. for a total of 44.. that is the very top end of possible construction.. and for that they would need to drop some construction times down from 6 to 4 years.. they are probably not going to manage it to be honest and so likely output will be about 12 boats dropping the fleet down to a likely 40 boats. It’s not impossible for it to be less if they hit a product bottleneck issue but that’s not likely .. so that’s the issue 2035 will see the US with a fleet of 40-44 boats in
that will be its lowest ebb as they will likely be able to keep the last seawolf and first Virginia working out to 2040.. so by 2040 they will have maybe 45-49 boats.. at that point the virgin class will age out at the same rate as production and the fleet will not grow.. essentially the US will not have a fleet of 66 SSNs again unless it makes a vast capital investment in SSN production.
The brutal truth for the the USN is that china did make that vast capital investment and now has more SSN production capacity than essentially the rest of the word combined. It’s got a entire complex of large and small module factories all connected to 24 boat bays and it looks like it’s built in another vast shed with 8-12 more.. it’s thought that it’s now serial producing classes of 16 boats at a time with an estimated production rate of 6 up to boats a year.. within a short period it will have finished production of the type 093B class ( considered to be an LA fight 2 analogue.. maybe a bit worse due to a duel reactor set up)… and it’s started producing the T095, it’s considered the first couple will be delivered by 2030 and the 30s will see that mass serial production. There is every indication that the 095 will be close or up to peer SSN standards ( single reactor, full deck rafting, tiling, pump jet propulsion all made with western level CNC lathes etc).. so by 2035 the PLAN could have 16 093Bs and maybe 16 095s as well as a fleet of 40-50 AIP boats… that’s unpleasant odds for 40 SSNs.. and the numbers game will only get worse from there..