Free Republic

SSN(X) is the Navy’s planned successor to Virginia: a larger, stealthier, longer-legged attack submarine that teams with UUVs, carries more weapons, and is designed for higher availability. Costs will dwarf current boats, and industrial bottlenecks—from single-source suppliers to overloaded yards—are real. Budget trade-offs and shipyard realities have pushed the first procurement to around FY-2040, delaying entry to the fleet.

The U.S. Navy faces a dangerous shortage of attack submarines, leaving it stretched too thin to meet global demands. While the fleet is already below its 66-boat goal, the reality is worse: about one-third of subs are non-deployable at any time due to massive maintenance backlogs and crew shortages.

The Ohio-class’s carrying capacity is about 50 percent of the entire supply of the U.S. Navy’s Tomahawk missiles. And since these SSGNs have been used recently to great effect, why take them away now? Some experts even argue that there is a strong case for attempting a refit of at least some of these powerful missile submarines until more Virginia-class boats equipped with cruise missiles can replace them.

Drug traffickers are spending $1 million a pop to build boats that look like submarines and can carry 4 tons of cocaine for 2,000 miles without refueling. Nicknamed "narco subs," they're made to sneak loads up from South America to Mexico, where the drugs are offloaded and taken overland into the United States. "It is a semi-submersible coffin," said Jay Bergman, Andean regional director for the Drug Enforcement Administration. "You batten down the hatches and you are doing everything to not be detected sailing in the middle of the ocean." At least 13 of the craft have been stopped and...

For US, a terror threat lurks in drug smuggling subs Shift of cargo to arms and people is feared By Bryan Bender KEY WEST, Fla. - Skimming just below the surface, they are extremely difficult to detect from surveillance aircraft or patrol boats. Their sleek design, up to 80 feet in length, can secretly carry several tons of cargo thousands of miles. These "semi-submersibles," which exhibit some of the same characteristics as military submarines, mark a significant advancement in the ability of drug smugglers to slip past coastal defenses. So far this year, the Coast Guard says it has encountered...

The last defendant in an extended family charged with conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China reached a plea deal that brought the case to an abrupt end, authorities said Wednesday. Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, 63, reached the deal with federal prosecutors late Tuesday on the eve of her trial on charges of conspiracy to export defense articles, failure to register as a foreign agent and making false statements to the FBI. Chiu instead pleaded guilty to one count of acting as a foreign agent without registering with the U.S. government and will serve three years in prison, said her...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The case against three alleged Chinese agents is set to return to court Monday with testimony from an FBI official that could help explain why the government has filed only one criminal charge despite making sweeping claims of conspiracy and theft. Chinese-American engineer Chi Mak, his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, and brother Tai Wang Mak pleaded not guilty Nov. 22 to charges that they were unregistered agents for China. Each was indicted on a single count even though an affidavit submitted last month by FBI Special Agent James Gaylord alleged they had committed crimes ranging from...

BREAKING: President Trump and SecDef Pete Hegseth just sent out 3 United States Navy destroyers, joined by an attack submarine, near Venezuela to crack down on the cartels. The gloves are finally coming off.

The U-Boat campaign off the United States' coast is pretty well known. Complacency on the American side, and daring on the German side. Combining in a perfect storm that saw many, many losses in the early days after the United States joined the war. That said, not all those losses were American. Some U-Boats were lost too, including one particularly noteworthy one. U-166. A submarine sunk close off the Gulf Coast. This sinking became something of a controversy, in how the captain responsible was treated by the Navy. But the boat, herself, is interesting all her own. After all, this...

Russian lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky responded to President Donald Trump's decision to move two U.S. nuclear submarines to "appropriate regions" near Russia by saying that Moscow can count on far more submarines than Washington. "There are significantly more of our [nuclear] submarines in the world's oceans, [and they] have the strongest, most powerful weapons," Vodolatsky, who is also first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, told Russia's government-controlled news agency TASS. "This is why, let [Trump's] two boats float, they have been at gunpoint for a long time,"...

The U.S. Navy’s Fiscal Year 2026 shipbuilding plan includes the procurement of six new battle force ships, among which are two Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarines. These submarines, expected to be designated USS Potomac (SSN-814) and USS Norfolk (SSN-815), mark the beginning of the Block VI production series and signal the Navy’s intention to sustain undersea superiority through the end of the 2030s. With these two additions, the Virginia-class program will reach at least 44 boats under contract, and integrates new technologies that extend their mission reach, including hypersonic missile capabilities. The budget request for these submarines reflects both strategic...

The U.S. Navy is facing a critical shortage of attack submarines, a “nightmare” scenario where aging Los Angeles-class boats are being retired faster than new Virginia-class submarines can be built. This impending capability gap is a symptom of a much deeper crisis within the American naval shipbuilding industry, which is plagued by inefficiencies, delays, and an inability to keep pace with the rapid expansion of China’s Navy.

President Donald Trump has tapped Adm. Daryl Caudle to be the next chief of naval operations and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In February, Trump fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti as CNO and the administration has been looking for a permanent replacement. Adm. James Kilby has been serving as acting CNO since Franchetti was removed. On June 17, the commander-in-chief submitted Caudle’s nomination for the role to the Senate and it was referred to the Armed Services Committee for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov. Caudle is currently serving as commander of Fleet Forces Command, Naval...

The British Prime Minister has launched his Strategic Defence Review at a shipyard in Scotland on Monday, promising cash for new nuclear warheads, new attack submarines, and a building programme for new munitions factories. The United Kingdom, which presently spends 2.3 per cent of its GDP on defence, will boost that to 2.5 per cent by 2027 and 3 per cent by some time in the 2030s, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday morning. The announcement was criticised from both sides, on one hand for three per cent of national output on defence being woefully low for...

The Navy on Thursday awarded a $9.4 billion contract to begin construction work on what has for years been its biggest modernization priority: A project to build a new class of at least a dozen nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines that’s expected to cost $110 billion once all is said and done.

On a training exercise from its home port in Guam, USS Minnesota is a forerunner to four Virginia class submarines that will be hosted at a Western Australian naval base from 2027, under the AUKUS partnership to transfer nuclear submarine capability to Australia. Commanding officer Jeffrey Corneille says the Virginia class submarine is “the most advanced warship in the world.” “If someone wakes up and they say ‘Is today the day?’, we make sure that they say ‘Maybe not’,” he says, describing its deterrent role. Around 50-80 United States navy personnel will arrive by the middle of the year at...

Elon Musk dropped a shocking revelation about how the government handed the Navy $12 billion to build new submarines, only to find that not a single submarine was built with the money. Musk, who revealed that he first heard the revelation from Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), said Navy officials shrugged when asked where the money for the submarines went. “There’s a case where I think Senator Collins was telling me about how she gave the Navy $12 billion for more submarines, got no extra submarines, and then held a hearing to say where the $12 billion went,” Musk told Joe...

Elon Musk just revealed that the government handed the Navy $12 billion to build new submarines—and not a single submarine was built. When investigators asked where the money went, Navy officials shrugged and said they had no idea. “There’s a case where I think Senator Collins was telling me about how she gave the Navy $12 billion for more submarines, got no extra submarines, and then held a hearing to say where the $12 billion go. “And they were like, we don’t know. That was it. I mean, basically, stuff is so crazy. Only the federal government could get away...

Amid reports of a new US military plan for an underwater drone release, scientists say China has already done it better, The US military is reportedly considering a tactic that involves deploying a submarine near the Chinese coast to release a large number of drones from under the water. These drones would then form a swarm in the air and launch surprise attacks on the People’s Liberation Army fleet during any potential attempt to land in Taiwan, thereby reducing the need for US ships to get too close to the combat zone and risk being hit. But there’s a twist:...

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to give away sovereign territory in the Indian Ocean which contains a strategically critical U.S. base is so “stupid” he must be on drugs to consider it, a Republican Senator says. President Trump and the new U.S. Secretary of State (foreign affairs minister) Marco Rubio have been briefed on the Chagos Islands situation created by the British government, says U.S. Republican Senator from Louisiana John Kennedy — no relation to President John Kennedy — and that the dictates of the United Nations should be ignored. Reminding others on the Senate floor (1hr 55m)...