They’ll be bigger, displacing 10,200 tons compared to 7,800 on the current subs; they’ll be longer, 460 feet compared to 377 feet; and they’ll have substantial more firepower, with the ability to launch strikes with 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles, compared to just 12 on the current ships.
These will all be Block V series subs of the Virginia-class. As you can see from the excerpt from the linked article above, they will be substantially larger with more missile capacity.
This purchase is in direct response to the PLAN’s rapid buildup.
It would be a significant appropriation to insert a multi-mission module into a Virginia-class and at this time, I don’t recall any such appropriation having been made.
For now, the USS Jimmy Carter is pretty much it in that department.
There is nothing “simple” or “inexpensive” about making such a modification. I suspect by the time the necessary research and develop and actual conversion is done on such a module, the modification costs will be, at a minimum, in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
It required an $887 Million contract extension on the USS Jimmy Carter to add the multi-mission module. That is in ADDITION to the base cost of the submarine.
I guarantee you that the necessary modifications to the selection submarine will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is good to mention though that this is a reduced order. The original budget was for 11. Just FYI. But I think that had something to do with a lot of construction delays.
At one time you guys had the third largest navy in the world. After the United States and the UK. Right after World War II the Canadian Navy was incredibly impressive.
I suspect by the time the necessary research and develop and actual conversion is done on such a module, the modification costs will be, at a minimum, in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
