Originally Posted by
Davef68
Assuming delivery of the first successor SSN will be late 30s - even if they do get 18 months between deliveries, and all 12 boats, then you are looking at an 18 year build program, so the later Astutes may be in service into the 2050s
Silly me, the version of the story implied (later corrected) delivery would be through the 30s - it did seem wildly optismistic. So we actually actually have the opposite problem, the 25 year life of the reactors that implies given launching in 2007 and commissioning in 2010
Astute needs replacing in commission sometime in the early 2030s ( and Ambush in the years before before 2036) or the fleet will be shrinking. Unless of course the unrefueled life of the PWR2 can be extended
