On the recordJuly 13, 2011
I want to ask my friend from New Jersey to engage in a colloquy. The purpose of it is to talk about the nuclear prototype. As you know, and as the ranking member knows and the full committee ranking member, Mr. Dicks, knows, the Ohio class nuclear submarine is a critical component of our country's national security and is one-third of our nuclear deterrence, along with bombers and nuclear missiles. These critical systems are aging and are close to the end of their lifecycle. As part of the Ohio replacement, or SSBN(X) program, we are looking at expanding the nuclear core so that the future nuclear ballistic submarines can have a core life expectancy of 40 years, over 20 years.





