The U.S. Navy Can’t Easily Replace the Ohio-Class SSGN Submarines

Summary and Top Points: Despite advancements in drones, AI, and targeting networks, raw firepower remains essential. The U.S. Navy’s Ohio-Class SSGNs, armed with 154 Tomahawk missiles each, provide unmatched undersea firepower capable of devastating dispersed targets.

-As these submarines near retirement, the Navy is urgently enhancing Virginia-class subs with additional missile payload modules.

-Yet, with new subs still years away, extending the life of existing Ohio-class SSGNs might be critical to maintain readiness for major conflicts with adversaries like Russia or China.

-Sustaining these submarines ensures America retains massive, responsive firepower, crucial for modern warfare scenarios that demand overwhelming and widespread missile strikes.

Ohio-Class SSGN Explained 

While drones, networks, and AI-enabled targeting are transforming modern warfare, raw firepower remains crucial. The U.S. Navy’s Ohio-Class SSGNs, armed with up to 154 Tomahawk missiles each, provide significant mobile, undersea firepower crucial for targeting large, dispersed objectives.

With these submarines nearing retirement, the Navy is fast-tracking the Virginia Payload Modules for Block V Virginia-class submarines, increasing their missile capacity from 12 to 40 Tomahawks. Given the long lead time for new submarines, extending the SSGNs’ service life through maintenance and upgrades could sustain essential firepower, ensuring readiness for large-scale conflicts with nations like Russia or China.

Why the Ohio-Class SSGN Submarines Are Vital

Drones, networks, electronic warfare (EW) and AI-enabled multi-domain targeting are all properly receiving massive amounts of focus when it comes to innovation, modernization, and preparations for future warfare, yet none of these next-generation applications can achieve much battlefield effects without simple “firepower,” and “lethality.” Ultimately, lethal effects must be brought upon a target with sufficient destructive power to achieve the intended result. Even with the many breakthroughs in the realm of precision targeting, many targets can be large and require a substantial amount of firepower to destroy.

This reality is not lost on weapons developers, who recognize the importance of maintaining undersea firepower in the form of torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles. Part of this important need to “mass” firepower has for years been contained in the U.S. Navy’s so-called Ohi0-Class SSGNs, guided missile submarines, each able to carry as many as 154 Tomahawk missiles. This is an extremely impactful amount of mobile, undersea firepower, particularly given that Tomahawks can travel as far as 900 miles to a target. SSGNs have been used to fire weapons in several conflicts, including Libya in 2011.

These submarines, much like the nuclear-armed Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, have already more than outlived their intended lifespan. Therefore, in anticipation of their retirement, the U.S. Navy has been fast-tracking what it calls Virginia Payload Modules for Block V Virginia-class submarines. This module is an added 80-foot section on Virginia class submarines that massively increases firepower from 12 Tomahawks to 40 Tomahawks per boat. This initiative, already progressing and under construction, is intended as a deliberate effort to help offset the loss of firepower expected when the four SSGNs retire.

Extend Massive Firepower

However, given the sheer mass, scope, and size of potential targets in rival nations, some might be inclined to explore the possibility of extending the Ohio-Class SSGN service life even further.

Potential adversaries can present a wide array of large, yet spread apart targets such as ships, buildings, armored vehicles, and other high-density, dispersed, large objectives, therefore a successful attack upon them would likely require a large amount of sea-launched firepower. It will take many more years for sufficient numbers of Block V Virginia-class boats to arrive, so perhaps it does make sense to extend SSGNs beyond what might seem possible.

This is not an easy task to accomplish, however, as they have already been in service for decades and have already exceeded their expected service life. The first of four SSGNs, the USS Ohio, was commissioned as far back as 1981. Extending service life will require additional maintenance, upkeep, and sustainment of critical systems such as electronics, weapons systems, computing, command and control, and simple hull structure.

Should this be accomplished, the U.S. Navy could sustain very large amounts of firepower for many more years as Block V Virginia-class boats arrive. An attack campaign scenario against either Russia or China would likely require large amounts of firepower to attack air defenses, command and control structures, equipment, and force concentrations separated by hundreds of miles. Any counterattack in response to a Russian or Chinese assault would need to overwhelm attacking forces with responsive sea-launched firepower.

About the Author: Kris Osborn

Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.