By John LaForge
The Congressional Research Service published a Report to Congress August 16 on the new nuclear submarine program whose mind-boggling costs continue to skyrocket. The estimated price for USS Columbia — the lead ship — is now $15.03 billion, compared to a $14.39 billion estimate made in 2021. The report, “Navy Columbia Class Ballistic Missile Submarine Program: Background and Issues,” concerns the plan to build 12 new subs (for threatening long-range nuclear missile attacks) to replace today’s 14 giant Trident submarines. Unlike tax money for education, health care, and pollution control, hardly anyone in Congress asks, “Can we afford it?” The Navy started the first replacement “platform” in 2021, and requests procurement of a second starting next year. The U.S. Navy Institute reports that the “cost estimate for the lead ship grew by $637 million over the last year.” The U.S.N.I. did not say the astronomical amount of money for new nuclear weapons systems represents a public dismissal, aggravation, and exacerbation of global crises in climate chaos, pollution, famine, disease, disaster relief, and mass migration.
— U.S. Navy Institute, June 7, 2023; Report to Congress on Columbia-class Ballistic Missile Sub – USNI News; Report to Congress on Columbia-class Ballistic Missile Submarine Program August – USNI News
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