2025 - CRS Report on SSNX (IF11826)

The Congressional Research Service Report (IF11826) dated 3/21/2025) provides insight for Congress about the Next Generation Attack Submarine (SSN(X)). The report identifies the following issues for Congress: Issues for Congress Issues for Congress include the following:

• whether the Navy has accurately identified the SSN(X)’s required capabilities and analyzed their impact on the SSN(X)’s cost;

• the potential future impact of the SSN(X) program on funding for other Navy program priorities, particularly if CBO’s estimate of the SSN(X)’s procurement cost is more accurate than the Navy’s estimate;

• the potential impact of deferring procurement of the first SSN(X) from to FY2040 on the future U.S. ability to maintain undersea superiority and fulfill U.S. Navy missions;

• the Navy’s plan for managing the impact on the submarine design industrial base of deferring procurement of the first SSN(X) to FY2040;

• whether it would be feasible and cost-effective for the SSN(X) to be powered by a reactor plant using low-enriched uranium (LEU), rather than the highly enriched uranium (HEU) used on other Navy nuclear-powered ships, particularly if procurement of the first SSN(X) is deferred to FY2040, and if so, what impact that would have on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation efforts and SSN(X) costs and capabilities; and • whether each SSN(X) should be built jointly by GD/EB and HII/NNS (the approach used for building Virginia class SSNs and, in modified form, for building Columbia-class SSBNs), or whether individual SSN(X)s should instead be completely built within a given shipyard (the separate-yard approach used for building earlier Navy SSNs and SSBNs). CRS goes on to say that the Navy says would take too long.