Progress Made on New Ballistic Missile Submarine;President Signs Defense Spending Bill

Congress has established a separate account for the Ohio-class Replacement Program.The account will contain funds for the US Navy's new Trident missile submarine that will replace the Ohio-class boats,which are under US Strategic Command as part of the nation's nuclear deterrent triad,along with land-based strategic bombers and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.The purpose of having a separate account is to take the pressure off the Navy's regular shipbuilding account,which must fund ongoing programs such as destroyers,littoral combat ships,aircraft carriers and attack submarines.This will allow the Navy to achieve its goal of a 300-ship combat force;it has 280 ships today.
The ORP account will include a transfer of excess Pentagon funds totaling 3.5 billion,plus a 1.3 billion appropriation from the 2015 Defense Spending Bill that President Obama just signed into law last Friday.The bill also forbids the retirement of the A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft;forbids the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility;permits the awarding of Purple Heart medals to survivors of the November 2009 Fort Hood,Texas massacre by Army psychiatrist Nidal Hassan,who killed 13 and wounded more than 30 in support of Islamist militants;provides core Pentagon funding of 521.3 billion and 63.7 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan;plus funds for the training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebels and 5 billion for Iraqi security forces.*
The 12 ORP submarines will be procured from 2021-2035 at a Congressional Budget Office estimate of 7.7 billion per boat.The entire project will run about 70 billion dollars,according to the Navy estimate of 5 billion per submarine,which is lower than the CBO's.By the CBO's reckoning,the whole program would cost 92.4 billion.The submarines are intended to have a lifespan of 42 years-the same as the Ohio-class.The submarines will be the largest in the Navy's history at 560 feet long.They will be armed with 16 of the same Trident D-5 missiles the Ohio-class uses,fired from 45-foot tubes.A common missile compartment will be shared with the United Kingdom for its four new Trident D-5 submarines,each with 12 firing tubes.
The ORP submarines will enter service in 2031 and serve through 2085,carrying about 70% of the US strategic nuclear warhead arsenal in a stealthy,survivable manner.General Dynamic's Electric Boat division is currently working on their early engineering,design and prototyping at its Groton,Connecticut and Quonset Point,Rhode Island facilities.*
The ORP submarine will feature a quieter,direct propulsion drive system;advanced sound-absorbing coating;advanced sensing technologies;and the same communications system,antennae and mast as the current Virginia-class attack submarine.*
General Dynamics(GD)