Most of this article is only of interest to Navy Nukes, I cut and pasted the portion that I think would be of interest to everyone.
Navy Builds New Nuclear-Armed SubmarinesThe Navy is only building 12 Ohio Replacement submarines to replace 14 existing Ohio-class nuclear-armed boats because the new submarines are being built with an improved nuclear core reactor that will better sustain the submarines, Navy officials have said.
As a result, the Ohio Replacement submarines will be able to serve a greater number of deployments than the ships they are replacing and not need a mid-life refueling in order to complete 42 years of service.
“With the life of ship reactor core, you don’t have a mid-life refueling. This allows our 12 SSBNs to have the same at sea presence as our current 14. That alone is a 40 billion savings in acquisition and life-cycle cost because you don’t have those two additional platforms,” Goggins said.
http://www.scout.com/military/warrior/story/1634863-navy-builds-new-nuclear-armed-submarines
