As the government’s spending on the submarine industrial base grows, so too is concern among lawmakers.
The Biden administration’s recent supplemental spending request includes $3.4 billion for the submarine industrial base, which, if passed, would bring the total planned investment to $8.7 billion from the U.S. government from fiscal years 2017 to 2028. The Australian government, too, may pitch in an additional $3 billion to cover the increased workload as part of the trilateral submarine agreement with the United Kingdom and Australia, known as AUKUS.
Through this spending, the Navy now says it will dig out of an attack submarine maintenance backlog by late FY27 or early FY28. It has said it would get back to on-time attack sub deliveries by FY28 as well.
