Didn’t say it is. Just saying it was indeed a budget sub, basically after the Seawolf proved too expensive for declining MIL budgets. Part of that budget is from making it smaller. Less material = less cost. I’ve always had my doubts it’ll ever be up to par as in the Los Angeles class. But, perhaps if they really do build as many as promised, it can be formidable.
I worked on this ship. Short time but one never forgets the circus one goes thru at EB. My uncle was a major figure on the Ohio weapons systems.
I came across an interesting article last summer about the problems the Navy is having in replacing parts on Virginia class submarines. I recalled our son telling us about delays because “something broke” on the submarines to which he was assigned.
He retired in 2019 as a senior chief after serving 20 years as a reactor operator on Los Angeles class submarines. He also had a brief stateside assignment at Newport News Shipyards. His job was to observe the crew that was being trained on the Minnesota as it was being built and preparing periodic reports on his observations.
So I sent him a link to the article and asked him about it. He said “oh, yeah, it’s a huge problem.” He told me that part of his job when he worked briefly at the shipyard was reporting the high failure rate and how parts were being taken from other ships to get a ship underway because there were not enough parts in the supply system. In one report he showed how if 3 parts broke, it could cripple the 688 fleet. He may have been referring to only the Norfolk fleet, but still, that would not be good.
Here is the link to the article.