Navy Acquisition: Cost, Schedule, and Performance of New Submarine Combat Systems

The nuclear attack submarine SSN is one of the nations most important antisubmarine warfare assets. To meet new Soviet threats, enhance the performance, and ensure the continued superiority of U.S. nuclear attack submarines, the Navy will equip both the improved Los Angeles class SSN-688 and the new Seawolf class SSN-21 nuclear attack submarines with new and improved combat systems-ANBSY-1 and ANBSY-2, respectively. The two computer- based combat systems are designed to detect, classify, track, and launch weapons at enemy subsurface, surface, and land targets locate enemy targets faster than previous systems allow operators to perform multiple tasks and address multiple targets concurrently and reduce the time between detecting a target and launching weapons. The life-cycle costs for the two systems have been estimated at over 26 billion. The Navys submarine combat system development programs are experiencing problems. ANBSY-1 program problems raise questions as to when the improved SSN-688s will be fully mission capable. Because of continued ambitious development objectives and schedules for the combat system development program, the Navy allowed insufficient time in the development schedule to resolve technical problems. As a result, the ANBSY-1 systems will provide SSN-688s improved performance capabilities in the acoustics and weapons launch areas, but the systems wil be less capable in other areas. Also, the capabilities will be delivered later and cost more than originally planned under the earlier program. eg