Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Sunday that the United States will be able to supply Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia, despite reports of a crisis in the construction program.
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“I am confident that we will be able to deliver the capabilities we set out to deliver. We recognize that there are challenges in the industrial base and we are taking steps to address those challenges. We are investing more so that we can accelerate production to achieve our goals in the future ” Austin said at a press conference after a meeting with the defense ministers of Australia and Japan in the Australian city of Darwin.
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Previously, the United States faced a crisis in the implementation of the Columbia and Virginia class nuclear submarine programs due to delays in schedule, significant cost overruns, a shortage of working specialists and other problems, according to published excerpts of the transcript of a classified briefing of the House Appropriations Committee. In particular, as stated in a document published by the US Congress, the US Navy will be forced to spend $17 billion more over the next six years on the construction of Virginia-class nuclear submarines.
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Supply chain problems for submarine construction, contracting, design and engineering were also identified, and the Navy’s reporting system was “at best unclear and flawed, and at worst misleading,” according to the released document.
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In October, the Washington Post reported that the US Navy’s fleet of nuclear attack submarines is not sufficiently equipped to repel threats to the current geopolitical reality. The publication’s columnist George Will wrote that the United States currently has 50 attack submarines, but the Navy command believes that 66 submarines of this class are needed for today’s tasks and possible events.
