US Going to Keep Nuclear Submarine Fleet Most Powerful in World - Carter

The United States must keep its nuclear submarine fleet the most powerful in the world and give it top priority in annual military budgets, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on a visit to the New London submarine base in Groton, Connecticut.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Defense contractor General Dynamics Electric Boat has begun research and development for the US Navy’s next-generation ballistic-missile submarine, due to begin construction in 2021.

"We have got to keep the size of the submarine fleet," Carter told us service personnel on Tuesday. "That is something we are favoring this year in the budget. I'm going to predict it will be favored in the future."

Carter said US command of the oceans through its submarine fleet was one of the most important factors in maintaining America’s global power, and he was determined to preserve it.

"There is widespread recognition [that] this is a source of American superiority and we need to keep it," he explained.

The total potential value of the program to replace the current Ohio-class ballistic missile-carrying nuclear submarines is projected to be more than $60 billion for 12 submarines, according to a 2015 US Navy estimate.