In 2025, Russian shipbuilders delivered three nuclear submarines to the fleet at once, including the strategic missile carrier "Knyaz Pozharsky". The plan for 2026 is three more nuclear submarines: "Perm", "Ulyanovsk", and "Khabarovsk". This is a level that the Pentagon expects to reach only from 2027, RIA Novosti studied the long-term shipbuilding program of the US Navy.
The Americans intend to lay down three submarines annually from fiscal years 2027 to 2031: one Columbia-class missile carrier and two Virginia submarines. The total budget for this is $124.9 billion. However, over the past ten years, their shipyards have delivered an average of 1.4 attack submarines per year, and Virginia deliveries have been delayed by 2–3 years.
For comparison: Sevmash is already implementing a program to reduce the delivery times of serial ships by 9–14 months, and under the state program, 14 nuclear-powered ships of the Borey-A and Yasen-M projects are to be built by 2027.
The Pentagon is trying to catch up with the accumulated deficit of the submarine fleet by urgently increasing the pace, while the Russian defense industry is steadily increasing the production of strategic submarines. The difference in approaches is visible in the dry figures: the US is allocating $62 billion for five Columbia missile carriers and another $62.9 billion for ten Virginia submarines, trying to compensate for years of delay with money. Russia, on the other hand, has synchronized the work of shipyards and design organizations so that the rhythmic delivery of three hulls per year becomes not a peak achievement, but a new norm.
