Inside the US Navy's Virginia Class Submarine Production Crisis

The United States Navy's ambition of significantly expanding its nuclear submarine force to preserve an advantage over China is confronting significant challenges. Budget limits and shipyard capacity constraints make it extremely difficult to speed the manufacturing of new Virginia-class attack submarines and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. Given changing threats and goals, it's unclear whether the Cold War-era plan for a 66-attack submarine fleet is still relevant. Commitments like providing Australia with submarines under the AUKUS agreement may potentially be jeopardised unless the Navy finds ways to increase manufacturing through investments and innovations. Note: AI Voice Used Visuals: US DoD