Life extensions for existing Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines should take some of the pressure off the Navy’s beleaguered Columbia-class replacements for those boats, the service’s head of acquisition for nuclear-armed submarines said recently.
Building more Columbia boats in the 2030s than now planned could also help, Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, the Navy’s program executive officer for strategic submarines, said during an Air Force Association Mitchell Institute event on Aug. 24.
The first Columbia-class boat is supposed to go on patrol in 2031 or so, but the date is looking harder to make with difficulties mounting in the industrial base, including with common missile compartment tubes manufactured by BWX Technologies, Lynchburg, Va. The company alluded to new problems with the previously troubled tubes in an early August earnings call.
In May, Pappano confirmed the Navy was evaluating short-term service life extensions, of two years or so, for five Ohio boats. The first such extension could begin in fiscal year 2029.
Last week during the virtual Mitchell Institute event, Pappano gauged the return the Columbia program might net in margin for each Ohio extension.
“[W]e spend about 18 months in the depot to buy about three years on the back end and extend some of those Ohio-class submarines to have a couple around as we bring on the Columbia-class,” Pappano told the Mitchell audience.
The Navy wants to have 10 ballistic missile submarines on patrol at all times to ensure there are sufficient nuclear-tipped Trident II D5 missiles hidden in the world’s oceans to deter U.S. adversaries from attacking the U.S. homeland or making major military moves against U.S. interests elsewhere.
Pappano said the Navy wants the next five Columbia vessels procured with the next contract the service cuts.
“I’d love to do all 10. But you know, that’s just kind of a bridge too far right now,” Pappano said last week. “But we’ll look at material buys for those because the other thing I want to do is, as far as risks in the industrial base, as much as I can level load them and get a demand signal to the industrial base.”
General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Ct., is the Navy’s prime on Columbia.
Exchange Monitor’s affiliate publication Defense Daily contributed to this report.
