Ultimately, the Navy hopes to build and operate as many as 12 new nuclear-armed submarines, to serve well into the 2080s. The administration’s 2019 budget request, released earlier this year, has already increased funding for the service’s new nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine by $ 2 billion over this year’s amount in what appears to be a clear effort to further accelerate technology development and early production. The Navy and industry may be speeding up full production plans for its first Columbia-Class nuclear armed ballistic missile submarine as part of a broader move to increase the size of the service’s submarine fleet more quickly.

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