
The program executive official for submarines on Nov. 18 said the service is confident it can ramp up to building three Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) per year if a plan to do so were enacted, but it requires more studies to balance production and maintain them properly. Last month, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper laid out the main points of his new Navy future fleet plan, Battle Force 2045. Among other changes to increase the force to 355 ships…