They are also preparing for the ssnx
next generation attack submarine. Though the SSNX also known as the
improved virginia class has yet to enter
service, top navy brass believe the
improved virginias will be the deadliest
hulls in the sea. SSNX an apex predator with columbia
class DNA.
Defense news quoted u.s navy rear
admiral william houston who explained
that the ssnx will leverage both some of
the new columbia-class advanced features
as well as personnel responsible for
creating and building the
state-of-the-art design. Where SSNX has timed us right where
we're coming off that columbia design
team that very robust design team, we're
going to capitalize on that design team
give that stability
and we're going to time it such that
when columbia is ramping down in
production. We'll be ramping up in SSNX because we'll have the design and the
research, development, test and evaluation
done.
Houston explained elaborating that
rather than laying off talented
submarine industry workers after
finishing the columbia program and
trying to rehire them later. The navy
would try and have people from the
columbia program move quickly to the SSNX program. Retaining columbia personnel for the SSNX would not only quicken the pace of
construction, but it would also melt some
advanced capabilities from the columbia
program onto the SSNX for an overall
more capable platform. We are looking at the ultimate apex
predator for the maritime domain. It is going to be faster, carry a
significant punch, bigger payload, larger
salvo rate it's going to have acoustic
superiority
and simultaneous we're going to work on
operational availability with respect to
maintenance what are we doing. We're
taking what we already know how to do
and combining it together.
Like sea wolves only better, the SSNX will likely have a role
somewhat akin to the sea wolf class. The
cold war era fast attack submarines
designed to hunt soviet ballistic
missile submarines within their home
waters while operating effectively
undetected and at speed. Though the seawolf class is among the
quietest submarines in the world, their
high sticker price of about three
billion dollars per hull combined with
the end of the cold war resulted in just
three hulls entering service plus a
fourth modified seawolf class hull for
clandestine missions.
We are going to go ahead and put that
all together and that is going to be
what i'm going to call SSNX, 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, really establish
our primacy, said admiral Hutton
Rear admiral houston stated explaining that even in home waters
enemy submarines won't rest easy. It needs to be able to deny an adversary
the ability to operate in their bastion
regions
and that is what that platform is going
to do and we are confident we're going
to be able to do that because we've
already built that on those previous
platforms. We know how to do that, we just
have to mesh it together with one
platform
and the systems we have with electronic
design tool.s the stuff that we've
already developed we're going to
capitalize on that.
