![]() There is no need to wait 18 months for more studies. But these functional Cold War assets offer a perfect transition platform, granting Australia an immediate exponential capability boost, a foundation for training, and an industrial base driver while new nuclear attack submarines are designed, procured and then built. The path forward is clear. The Los Angeles Class subs are certainly not shiny new things. Originally set to leave service by around 2026, Australia could drop the planned service life extensions for their subs, sell (or refit and then sell) the vessels to, say, Taiwan, or the Australian Navy can choose a middle path, operating a mixed fleet of both conventional and nuclear-powered subs into the mid 2030’s. Leasing refreshed Los Angeles Class submarines also opens new options for Australia’s aging conventionally powered fleet of six Collins Class submarines. It is scheduled to replace older Los Angeles-class submarines in the near future, and. If Australia can start taking on basic nuclear submarine maintenance duties over the coming years, and, in a stepwise fashion, assume more and more of the life-extension work in the two-year Engineered Refueling Overhauls necessary for the brace of Australian-bound Los Angeles Class subs, America’s overstretched submarine maintainers at four taxpayer-owned Navy Yards will get a bit of a breather. The Virginia-class is a new group of nuclear-powered cruise missile fast-attack submarines. This arrangement offers the best path forward for Australia’s non-existent nuclear submarine-ready industrial base. Instead, it can all be transferred over to Australia while still fully intact. Navy spared another decade of additional expenses tied up in maintaining separate Los Angeles Class training, sustainment and maintenance pipelines. The “Divest-to-Reinvest” minded Department of Defense would be gleeful to see the U.S. Loaning Australia the remaining set of younger Los Angeles Class subs, America gets a politically painless path to enjoy the efficiencies of maintaining an almost exclusively Virginia Class attack submarine fleet. Defense Department.Īgain, everybody wins. ![]() demands in the region, adding a lend-lease feature to the “Three Amigos” agreement, may solve a lot of problems for the U.S. The Los Angeles Class, sometimes called the LA Class or the 688 Class, is a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines that forms the backbone of the U.S. books” yet still available to support various U.S. By loaning the last serviceable Los Angeles Class subs to Australia, where they are “off the U.S. In a case of fortuitous timing, the life-extending refits are set to get underway in about 18 months, with the USS Cheyenne (SSN 773) being the first in 2023.įor the U.S., keeping Cold War-era Los Angeles Class submarines in service was an unwise initiative committing to maintain a tiny “orphan” fleet of Los Angeles Class subs for another decade would be a maintenance burden and an expensive distraction from America’s burgeoning Virginia (SSN-774) Class attack submarine fleet. Before the “Three Amigos” agreement, America was tinkering with the idea of using surplus reactor cores to refuel five to seven Los Angeles Class submarines, putting them through a two-year Engineered Refueling Overhaul (ERO) that would extend their service lives for about another ten years.
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