The US Navy Wanted to Spend $44,000,000,000 on 29 Nuclear Seawolf-Class Attack Submarines. The Navy Only Got 3 and Can't Build Any More

The U.S. Navy originally planned to buy 29 Seawolf-class nuclear attack submarines, estimated at about $44 billion, but only built three. In July 1990, the Government Accountability Office told Congress the procurement would reach 29 boats by 2000; the U.S. ultimately built three. In January 1992, the Bush administration canceled the rest of the class in the fiscal 1993 budget. USS Seawolf was commissioned July 19, 1997, USS Jimmy Carter on February 19, 2005, and Congress later preserved USS Connecticut. The Navy’s broader attack-submarine target is 66 boats, but the fleet started fiscal 2026 with 49, with Virginia-class production averaging about 1.1 to 1.2 deliveries per year since 2022. The shortfall reflects delayed replacement efforts after Seawolf was cut.