Cost Cutting the Super Sub

The Navy’s sub­ma­rine force is in trou­ble. A shrink­ing num­ber of boats is strug­gling to meet steady demand from regional com­man­ders. Meanwhile, the cost of the only U.S. sub­ma­rine cur­rently in pro­duc­tion, the super-​​high-​​tech Virginia–class attack boat, has risen to $2.3 bil­lion apiece. At that price, the Navy can afford to buy only one per year. Do the math: since attack boats last only 30 years, build­ing one boat per year means your fleet is even­tu­ally going to shrink to 30 boats from the cur­rent 55. Long-​​range plans call for 48 attack subs, so how is the Navy going to get there?
Some observers have called for the Navy to start pro­duc­tion of new, smaller and cheaper boats, per­haps even diesel-​​electrics rather than nukes. But the long ranges that U.S. boats must travel, their need for big hulls (for mis­sion flex­i­bil­ity) and the strong pro-​​nuke cul­ture of U.S. sub­mariners means diesels aren’t a real­is­tic option.
Plus, no U.S. ship­yard has built diesel boats in more than 50 years, so where would you get them from? Germany? Sweden? Both coun­tries build fine diesel boats, but Congress ain’t likely to go beg­ging to these reluc­tant allies for cheap sub­marines. No, nukes are where it’s at, and nukes never come cheap. The Navy wants to buy two Virginias per year to sus­tain fleet num­bers, but it refuses to do so unless the price drops to $2 bil­lion. The two U.S. sub­ma­rine man­u­fac­tur­ers — Newport News and Electric Boat — want the work, but can they knock $300 mil­lion off the Virginia’s price?
Aviation Week has run a story on efforts to trim Virginia’s cost:
The most effec­tive way to lower the per-​​hull price of Virginias, by more than $150 mil­lion apiece, is a more effi­cient build rate to dis­trib­ute over­head costs and increase learn­ing effi­cien­cies, accord­ing to [Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ships Allison] Stiller, Vice Adm. Paul Sullivan, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, and Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton II, pro­gram exec­u­tive offi­cer for ships. An addi­tional $25-$80 mil­lion in sav­ings is pos­si­ble through a “real­lo­ca­tion” between the ship­builders, they said.

A sec­ond story goes into detail:
Seven capital-​​expenditure (capex) projects have been approved or are in devel­op­ment to help General Dynamics Corp.‘s Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman Corp.‘s Newport News slice costs off the Virginia–class sub­ma­rine pro­gram, Navy Rear Adm. William Hilarides said April 17. …
Five capex efforts have been approved, includ­ing a light fab­ri­ca­tion project at Electric Boat’s Quonset Point ship­yard. There also is a cen­tral­ized coat­ing facil­ity there, and Electric Boat has a mod­ule trans­porta­tion project under­way as well. For its part, Newport News has a mod­u­lar out­fit­ting facil­ity and has upgraded its hor­i­zon­tal machin­ing cen­ter. …
Meanwhile, the boat’s bow design will be sim­pli­fied under new design work already bud­geted and should be imple­mented in the FY ’10 sub, Hilarides said. The design will move sonar hydrophones and the ver­ti­cal launch­ing sys­tem, but it will not affect any expected capa­bil­i­ties. …
Nevertheless, Hilarides said the Navy would con­sider remov­ing the spe­cial forces’ lock-​​out cham­ber on the Virginia boats if capa­bil­i­ties had to be cut. Other options include using pas­sive instead of active sonar and a clas­sic pro­peller instead of the “propul­sor,” which pro­vides more stealth, he said.

The lock-​​out cham­ber in ques­tion allows SEALs to exit and enter the sub while it’s sub­merged. If the cham­ber goes, the subs lose much of their spe­cial oper­a­tions capa­bil­ity — one of their major sell­ing points. If this hap­pens, the U.S. Navy won’t be the first sea ser­vice to sur­ren­der submarine-​​based spe­cial oper­a­tions. This year, on cost grounds, the Royal Navy retired its only sub with a lock-​​out cham­ber.
–David Axe
UPDATE: 9:59 AM: Speaking of commando-​​carriers, the star-​​crossed, $446 mil­lion mini-​​sub known as the “Advanced SEAL Delivery System” has finally been sent to Davey Jones’ locker. But I hear SOCOM is still going to have to pay through the nose for the one System that’s actu­ally (kinda, sorta) work­ing.
UPDATE: 11:39 AM: “I’ve been on USS Virginia, and, trust me, her abil­ity to deploy SEALs and their gear is not severely com­pro­mised by the pro­posed removal of her spe­cial nine-​​man com­mando lock-​​out cham­ber,” says Joe Buff, who knows a thing or two about subs. “One could, in extremis, make the case that this new cham­ber is redundant.”

Like every U.S. Navy nuclear sub­ma­rine in ser­vice, the Virginia-​​class also has at least two con­ven­tional lock-​​out cham­bers, oth­er­wise known to the crews as escape trunks. While these escape trunks are smaller that the new-​​style lock-​​out cham­ber, and thus it takes longer for a full SEAL team to depart or reen­ter the sub, the exist­ing trunks are per­fectly func­tional for launch­ing under­sea com­mando mis­sions. SEALs have used them quite suc­cess­fully on American SSNs for many years. In addi­tion, much of the SEALs’ equip­ment is brought along exter­nally, in a pressure-​​proof Dry Deck Shelter (DDS), a piece of equip­ment that has also been around for years and which the Virginia class is fully equipped to carry. A DDS can hold the lat­est mod of SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) under­wa­ter scooter, or inflated rub­ber boats with mil­spec muf­fled out­board motors. While the fail­ure of the ASDS project is a def­i­nite dis­ap­point­ment, SEALs are a hardy and adapt­able breed. Again, they can get the job done, rid­ing to and from their tar­get the old-​​fashioned ways. As a case in point, the early-​​flight Los Angeles-​​class USS Dallas, still in com­mis­sion, has been ded­i­cated to sup­port­ing SOCOM ops in the Global War on Terror, with a very high op tempto and a great record of effec­tive­ness. (I’ve been on her recently, too.) Her “spe­cial” war­fare equip­ment? Conventional lock-​​out escape trunks, and a DDS on her back.

April 19th, 2006 | Ships and Subs | 31558 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2006/04/19/cost-cutting-the-super-sub/Cost+Cutting+the+Super+Sub2006-04-19+12%3A51%3A36hambling You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.