US Navy takes delivery of New Jersey SSN
The USS New Jersey was christened in 2021. (Photo: HII)
The USN’s Virginia-class SSNs are replacing the old Los Angeles-class SSNs. The Virginia-class SSNs are fitted with the latest sensors and weapons and around 48 submarines are planned, with a total of 38 currently ordered.
USN has taken delivery of its 23rd Virginia-class nuclear fast-attack submarine USS New Jersey (SSN 796), the 11th boat built by HII Newport News Shipyard with 12 other boats built by General Dynamics Electric Boat.
USS New Jersey was christened in November 2021 at NNS and the submarine is expected to be commissioned later this year.
Under US Navy force-level goals announced in 2016, it has planned to have a total of 66 SSN, although this number will only be 46 by 2030. The US Navy’s current force of SSNs comprises 50 boats including 26 Los Angeles-class (SSN-68) boats, three Seawolf-class (SSN-21) boats and 23 Virginia-class boats.
As reported by Shephard, the succession of Virginia-class boats will eventually replace the Los Angeles-class with the intention to grow the SSN force to above 60 by FY2053, according to the US Navy’s FY2024 30-year shipbuilding plan announced in March 2023.
According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the Virginia-class SSN programme updated on 12 October 2023, the number of SSNs would dip from the mid-2020s to the early 2030s as a “consequence of having procured a relatively small number of SSNs during the 1990s, in early post-Cold War era.”
Shephard Defence Insight notes that Virginia-class boats have a submerged displacement of 7,925t and measures 114.8m in length, has a beam of 10.36m and a draft of 9.3m. The boats are powered by a GE PWR S9G nuclear reactor and two 40,000hp (29.84 MW) turbines, the submarines have an unlimited range and a maximum speed of at least 25kt.
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