Columbia-class SSBN (SSBN-X Future Follow-on Submarine)

[eflight]

Virginia actually started as Centurion but that's a whole different story

 

[publiusr]

https://news.usni.org/2024/09/16/austal-usa-awarded-450m-to-build-a-submarine-construction-facility-in-mobile

Another step closer to Sea Dragon

 

[Scott Kenny]

Virginia actually started as Centurion but that's a whole different story

I don't think Centurion was ever proposed as a name for a ship in the class, though.

 

[that_person]

I’m 90% sure the “Centurion” name was a play on “21st century submarine,” similar to literally every other DoN project from the era. Nobody actually expected them to use the “NSSN” designation either.

 

[Vepr157]

Nobody actually expected them to use the “NSSN” designation either.

Then again, the Navy did bizarrely end up using the placeholder SSN 21 for the Seawolf class.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Then again, the Navy did bizarrely end up using the placeholder SSN 21 for the Seawolf class.

Yeah, I have no idea what happened there. Can only assume that some idiot wrote the ships in class as SSN-21, -22, and -23 during procurement and they or their office was too important to correct to 774, 775, and 776.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Not sure how I missed this.

Well it should have been Neptune class to start but I digress.

No, that'd be the missile that replaces Trident.

 

[bobbymike]

Not sure how I missed this.


No, that'd be the missile that replaces Trident.

Neptune “carrying” his …….

 

[TomS]

Yeah, I have no idea what happened there. Can only assume that some idiot wrote the ships in class as SSN-21, -22, and -23 during procurement and they or their office was too important to correct to 774, 775, and 776.

I think it was a matter of not wanting to explain why the Navy was "changing" from SSN-21 to SSN-774. And then it became clear that the Seawolf was going to be a short run, they were OK being very nonstandard. Same basic logic as DD-21 becoming DD(X) and then DDG-1000.

 

[eflight]

I don't think Centurion was ever proposed as a name for a ship in the class, though.

So here is the story.

Centurion was the name of the submarine program that followed Seawolf. The new submarine for the next century, it would be smaller and cheaper than Seawolf. Centurion was going to be the name of the class and first boat as well. Congress found out about the program and got upset the Navy started a named submarine program without Congressional approval. The SHTF. So everyone working the project got a letter stating that we were no longer allowed to call it Centurion. It was to be called the New SSN design, or as everyone came to know it NSSN. NSSN was what the Virgina program was called until the first boat of the class was named.

 

[Scott Kenny]

So here is the story.

Centurion was the name of the submarine program that followed Seawolf. The new submarine for the next century, it would be smaller and cheaper than Seawolf. Centurion was going to be the name of the class and first boat as well. Congress found out about the program and got upset the Navy started a named submarine program without Congressional approval. The SHTF. So everyone working the project got a letter stating that we were no longer allowed to call it Centurion. It was to be called the New SSN design, or as everyone came to know it NSSN. NSSN was what the Virgina program was called until the first boat of the class was named.

I stand corrected!

Thank you!