Americas current nuclear-armed stealth submarines have patrolled the worlds water for more than 40 years.
Theyre hard to catch, harder to destroy, and carry enough nukes to level a city.
The current Ohio-class subs were built in the 1960s and 70s and first deployed in 1981.
An artist rendering of the future U.S. Navy Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.Photo: U.S. Navy
Theyre old and the cost of maintaining them goes up every year.
Thats not going to happen.
General Dynamics Electric Boat is building the first one right now and its not going well.
Some of the problems are systemic.
There just arent many people in America who can build nuclear submarines.
The GAO looked at the bigger picture and was pessimistic about the costs of the new nuclear submarines.
This kind of thing happens all the time.
The F-35 jet was initiallypitchedas a low-cost replacement for F-16s and A-10s.
Twenty years later, F-35s areshooting themselvesand the cost of the production has doubled.
The GAO has seen all this before.
It knows that once costs start growing and production slows down, things rarely turn around.
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The War in Ukraine Is Fought on Horseback Against Drones Carrying Machine Guns
War.
