The U.S. Navy now expects to receive its first Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine in March 2029, a 17-month delay from the original October 2027 schedule.
Acting Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James W. Kilby confirmed the revised timeline during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week.
“We are trying desperately to claw back that schedule,” Kilby told lawmakers. “I am going to try to pull it to the left to deliver it earlier.”
The Columbia-class, starting with the future USS District of Columbia, is the Navy’s top acquisition priority. It will replace the aging Ohio-class fleet as the cornerstone of the sea-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad.
Acquisition officials said production delays stemmed from manufacturing setbacks, workforce shortages, and supply chain issues. These factors have drawn scrutiny from oversight bodies, including the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
A previous GAO analysis has found that aside from the delays, the Navy is struggling to manage costs in the Columbia-class submarine program, with overruns reaching “six times higher than” the prime contractor’s estimates and “five times more than the Navy’s.”
“As a result, the government could be responsible for hundreds of millions in additional construction costs for the lead submarine,” GAO said in its September 2024 report.
The Columbia-class program includes 12 submarines, each equipped with 16 Trident II D5 missile tubes. The first patrol remains scheduled for the early 2030s.
