The U.S. Navy has ordered another eight Virginia class SSNs
 

Nice article if you wonder how many boats the USN have on order or in service:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/hts.../20081230.aspx

But they are going fast :yep:

Hrm... this is mildly disturbing :hmm:

I'm a sub buff, but in this economy.....why?

One would assume self preservation.

Sad to see the old LA girls go, but they had their day I guess :cry:

The 688I's will be in service for quite some time yet. A stroke of genius that was strategic and also economically feasable was the conversion of four Ohio class SSBN's to SSGN's. These will fill a niche that the 688I platform performs and you can carry far more special forces troops in the SSGN's than the 688I's could.

You sound almost doomish on your take on the state of our future. You expect this economy to be in this state or worse come several years from now?

The point is, you prepare for the future, and live for today. What they are doing is perfectly proper.

-S

Because the modern SSN is, arguably, the most versatile combat platform that the navy has to offer. The only other type of ship that would challenge it is the modern supercarrier. However, the SSN can function independently, in an entirely clandestine fashion, and for a fraction of the cost of CVN, let alone it's accompianing battle group. It is disheartening not to have the aging sub fleet replaced in adequate numbers.

Because the carrier is more and more useless. A serious attack using diesels is likely more than enough to bring one down in a serious war. (Look at how close they get when it is not a war)

We need more subs to replace the lost ability of the supers.

If you loose the supercarriers, you loose much more than could ever be compensated by tens of new SSN. An attack sub has no strategic value, it cannot project force as a CVN battlegroup can. The strengh of the us navy is not in its submarine force, but in its 12 supercarriers dislocated throughout the world.

I thought they had 15?

-S

PS. Never mind - 3 are in process of being built. There are 12 active and 3 more that will be active.

11 actually until CVN-79 is commissioned. And it's unlikely the planned number of Gerald Ford class's will be completed IMO. 15 is the number that lots of people consider ideal, though.

PD

Note that while Kitty Hawk is still on the active roster, she will be decommissioned shortly and for all intents and purposes isn't active.

PD

Probably cheaper in the long run to buy new than keep older boats going any longer.

Another question to ponder is whether the USN will foresee the need (pending evaluation results of the Virginias I guess) the need for an AIP SSK. I know they've borrowed a few Euro-boats to test ASW against but it wouldn't hurt to have a couple handy for brown-water ops.
That being said, if the Virginias and Seawolfs can handle brown-water ops well then there is no real need other than for ASW training, I know the Skipjacks used to do their fair share of Murmansk lurking, I guess the Seawolves do a similar task these days or earlier 688i's.