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..
Excellent post. It would appear that the US would do well to keep and strengthen its current alliances. How’s that going at present?
How many working Astutes does the RN have at present?
One – I’m aware. And awful though that it is it should / must improve and I hope that in a SHTF situation we could put at least another one or two to sea at an accelerated pace. But you’ll note that I said allies and not the UK. For SSN I was thinking the UK & France. In the future it’s supposed to also include Australia. And as the largest risk is the rise of Chinese SSN then US allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea with their AIP subs and anti-submarine assets should come in quite handy if required. That’s what I meant by allies.
One – I’m aware. And awful though that it is it should / must improve and I hope that in a SHTF situation we could put at least another one or two to sea at an accelerated pace. But you’ll note that I said allies and not the UK. For SSN I was thinking the UK & France. In the future it’s supposed to also include Australia. And as the largest risk is the rise of Chinese SSN then US allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea with their AIP subs and anti-submarine assets should come in quite handy if required. That’s what I meant by allies.
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Excellent post on US construction difficulties. In addition to the fall in theoretical numbers, the USN is struggling to keep existing boats operational. Unavailability because of maintenance backlogs has risen to4 40% of theSSN fleet. With UK having similar problems, delivering the AUKUS commitment will be a massive challenge.
Yes I did not actually include the 3-5 Virgina class the Australians have been offered.. if they did 3 that’s a likely US fleet of 37-41 in 2035.. if the got 5 boats that’s 35-39 boats..
The U.S. SSN maintenance back log is as you say apparently 35-40%.. it should be less than 20% .
So the mandated US SSN fleet is 66 with an availability of more than 80% or 54 available boats.. it’s presently 51boats at about 63% availability or about 31 boats available.. by 2035 If availability does not shift and aus takes its max boats it could be down to 19 available boats..
Add this to the catastrophic nature of the escort fleet .. which has also dropped significantly and with no specialist ASW ships.. the USN is becoming profoundly unbalanced and is a great fleet for strategic bombardment or delivery of a huge amphibious force but not a fleet for global maritime conflict.
Virginia class construction was 3 years per boat in the early going before the idiotic Biden administration forced thousands of skilled workers to quit or take COVID jabs. Ingalls has already bought multiple facilities to speed up construction by providing submarine sections. Austal USA is already providing modules as well. Sub production is being slowly dragged back to the left, with months cut off USS Columbia already.
Austal USA is in the process of opening a new, 3-bay facility in addition to their existing 3-bay facility for the production of surface ships. This facility is scheduled to open summer 2026, enabling them to build multiple medium-sized surface combatants under shelter. This is just in time for a potential follow-on order for FF(X), once the final configuration is nailed down.
You, like so many of the internet commentariat, see a snapshot in time as forever. Yes, at the start of 2025, USN production programs were in horrid condition, but work has been undertaken to correct that. Try digging beneath the surface for a change.
It’s not a snapshot in time it’s a prolonged picture.. and you don’t suddenly snap your fingers.. it takes a good few years to reverse a trend in workforce decline and it must be done slowly..
Your comment indicating that we are going to drop to 41 boats is based on a snapshot in time of current production levels. It does not take into account skilled workforces being brought to bear at other yards (Austal and the new Ingalls facility already do shipbuilding work to USN standards) There isn’t a trend of workforce decline. Workforce decline was a step-function caused by COVID. It is not a continuing picture of losing workers every year. Nor does it need to take a ‘few good years’ to reverse if we are bringing in yards that currently do not do submarine work to take on some of that load.
Jomo my assessment was included a planned increase in production.. I worked on 2 Virginias commissioned a year.. up from the 1.2-1.5 that has been commissioned..
And your plain wrong on this being easy.. the US does not have the mass of shipbuilding industry to just move people in to SSN production.. and SSN production is completely different from steel box merchant production..
I’m been keeping a very close eye on all the major warship manufacturers and their capacity for a good few years and read all the assessments.. and there is nothing anywhere that says the US can get above 2 SSNs a year in any reasonable timeframe.. and 44 SSNs was a USN assessment of the mid 2030s before the US government offered 3-5 to Australia.
I didn’t say it was a finger-snap solution or that it would be ‘easy’. I said that steps were being taken to increase this. You are looking at major shipyards. Others, including myself, have looked at how to bring on shipyards that aren’t ‘major’ shipyards to help do the work. The reality is that the picture is a moving target. It’s not going to be suddenly 4 subs are popping out of the yards, but it isn’t likely to be the glacial pace you’re insisting is the case. The truth is far more likely to be somewhere in the middle.
Will we be able to hand over a handful of subs for AUKUS? Probably not. Will we fall hopelessly far behind? Probably not.