The USN intend to stop production of the. Irginia class in 2031, at current production rates that’s about another 20 boats, EBbthink they might be able to fit in another 4 or 5. The current fleet of around 65 subs will, on current trend, sink to the low 40s, so I don’t think they would be happy to give any up.
The USN has never been that happy with the Virginia compared with the Seawolf - see it as a kind of F-35/F -22 performance thing - and the SSNX is supposed to close that gap. So they won’t want to slip the changeover to build more Virginia class instead.
https://news.usni.org/2021/08/11/rep...ck-submarine-3
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...shortage-50512