The US lacks the capacity to speed up submarine construction

The United States lacks the capacity to speed up submarine construction. Overload at shipyards and a shortage of dry docks have led to repair delays and downtime, according to state audit data studied by RIA Novosti.

“Over the past ten years, the US Navy has lost more than 15,000 days of service due to repair delays and downtime of operational attack submarines. This resulted in approximately $3.4 billion in costs,” the document says.

As noted, from fiscal years 2016 to 2025, American shipyards completed only about 11 percent of major overhauls of multi-purpose submarines on time. The average duration of such repairs increased from 744 days in 2016-2020 to 809 days in 2021-2025.

Another major problem was the submarines that had already completed their service. Before final decommissioning, nuclear fuel must be unloaded from their reactors, but this requires a free dry dock, and there is not enough space at the shipyards.