USN Budget Includes $10B for New Missile Sub: The Navy plans to fund a total of 48 ships through fiscal 2020, according to the 2016 budget sent today to Congress, including 10 new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and 10 Virginia-class submarines from 2016 through 2020.
Advanced procurement for the SSBN(X) strategic missile submarine begins in 2017, with the first ship to be ordered in 2021. The cost to build a class of 12 submarines is expected to dominate service shipbuilding budgets through the 2020s.
Last summer, the Navy estimated the procurement cost for the first of 12 planned SSBN(X) subs to cost about $12.4 billion, but is working to get the average cost of each submarine down to about $5 billion.
