Cold War End Casualty? What Happened to Massive, Armed SeaWolf Submarines?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

During a short-lived and prematurely “truncated” existence, the famous SeaWolf submarines arguably introduced a new generation of undersea technology and firepower, sufficient to inspire what is now the “breakthrough” Virginia-class attack submarines. 

The initial Navy plan was to construct as many as 29 Seawolf submarines as very large, technologically superior submarines capable of carrying as many as 50-Tomahawks. This is massive firepower and, given that the SeaWolf class was stopped after only three boats, its cancellation may be why the US Navy is now fast-tracking Block V Virginia-class attack submarines with Virginia Payload Modules built in to increase the boat’s firepower by 28 Tomahawks up to 40-per boat. This brings a commensurate measure of firepower and may be part of a deliberate effort to compensate for what many regard as a potentially “premature” cancellation of the SeaWolf class. 

Did the collapse of the Cold War, the massive extent to which the Soviet and Russian threat seemed to decrease inspire what may have been a short-sighted decision to cancel the Seawolf?  Certainly many discuss what was called a military technology “procurement” holiday in the 1990s has inspired a massive uptick in new platforms in recent decades. The Pentagon was “pivoting” from a Cold War era, yet many likely still maintained a long-term view of the threat equation and likely very much wanted to keep the SeaWolf. What happened? 

End of Cold War – SeaWolf Cancelled Early? 

The somewhat abrupt end to the Cold War generated a quick and potentially premature cancellation of the highly-capable Seawolf-class attack submarines initially slated to replace the existing fleet of Los Angeles-class boats.

Although the service initially planned to build 29 Seawolf submarines, only three were actually built before the program came to halt due to budget constraints in the mid-1990s. The early termination of the Seawolf-class submarines inspired the birth of the now fast-progressing Virginia-class submarines, yet the Seawolfs themselves were engineered to be a paradigm-changing “jump” forward in capability beyond the Los Angeles submarines.