The Navy has grand plans for its next-generation ballistic missile submarine, pushing it deeper into the research-and-development phase in fiscal 2014 — and one step closer to production — with a healthy $1.1 billion investment that amounts to roughly double what the service spent on the program last year.
The new submarine is expensive by any measure, with the total price tag for developing and purchasing the 12 ships estimated at a staggering $93 billion. Lawmakers and Navy officials, however, believe that the cost of modernizing a critical leg of the three-pronged nuclear deterrent is well worth its price.
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“Congress goes out of its way to make sure it marks up $500 billion,” said Russell Rumbaugh, an analyst at the nonpartisan Stimson Center. “National defense is important and Congress takes time to do it.”
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