US Navy’s deadliest new subs are hobbled by spare-parts woes

[Tony]

The U.S. Navy has swapped more than 1,600 parts among its new Virginia-class submarines since 2013 to ease maintenance bottlenecks as components that are supposed to last 33 years wear out decades sooner.

Parts are being shuttled regularly among the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarines so that vessels in the $166 billion class built by General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries can return to operations, according to data from the Naval Sea Systems Command and the Congressional Budget Office.