The US Navy’s proposed 2022 budget requests at least $98 million in research and development funding to create a Next Generation Attack Submarine, or SSN(X), that the Navy plans to start buying in 2031, a new report has revealed.
The survey, published by the Congressional Research Service institute, claimed that the SSN(X) is due to become a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarine, also known as submersible ship nuclear (SSN).
According to the report, the new vehicle would be the successor to the Virginia-class SSNs, which the Navy has been procuring since 1998.
The survey argued that at least 66 SSN(X)s are due to be built by 2048, with a price tag for each such submarine estimated to stand at $5.8 billion.
The Congressional Research Service cited the Navy as saying that the new vehicle will be designed “to counter the emerging threat posed by near peer adversary competition for undersea supremacy”.
The Navy added that the SSN(X) features “greater transit speed under increased stealth conditions in all ocean environments, and carry a larger inventory of weapons and diverse payloads”.
In addition, the submarine will also be designed “to retain multi-mission capability and sustained combat presence in denied waters, with a renewed priority in the antisubmarine warfare (ASW) mission against sophisticated threats in greater numbers”.
The Congressional Research Service report comes after Rear Admiral Joseph Houston, commander of the US Naval Submarine Forces, praised the SSN(X), adding that the Navy is “looking at the ultimate apex predator for the maritime domain”.
“That is going to be what I’m going to call SSN(X), the apex predator, because it really needs to be ready for that major combat operations, it’s going to need to be able to go behind enemy lines and deliver that punch. That is going to really establish our primacy”, Houston asserted.