Quiet, deadly and expensive: The Navy’s costly plan to upgrade aging submarines

Submarines are quiet, deadly and expensive. Boats like those in the Virginia class, which is a U.S. attack submarine, can cost $3.4 billion and take seven years to build. The Navy has ambitious goals for the future of the underwater fleet, but some problems could stand in the way.

“The Navy is undergoing a 20-year plan that will cost $21 billion to upgrade its infrastructure,” said Aidan Quigley, a reporter at Inside Defense who covers the U.S. Navy and Marines. “Right now, the state of Navy shipyard infrastructure is not great. They’ve been underfunded for the past couple of decades.”