13 for Freedom?

So we have often touched on the whole “41 for Freedom” Polaris FBM SSBNs that were cranked out during the Duck and Cover era to help win the Cold War in an amazing nine years and four months from the first keel ordered on Dec. 31, 1957, to the 41st commissioned in April 1967. It was impressive, for sure, especially when you consider that Polaris wasn’t even on the drawing board until 1956 and Nautilus had only been commissioned in 1954! The secret to pulling off something like that is threefold: A) the political will to stay the course, no matter what the cost, B) available shipyards and skilled tradesmen, C) block buys. Well, we may not have the first two today, but it looks like the Navy just did a huge block buy for not only nine Virginia-class attack submarines SSN 814-822 (Block VI) along with a set of material for a 10th, but also five Columbia-class fleet ballistic missile submarines SSBN 828-832 (Build II). Now EB, HHI, and NNS just need the space and talent (they are farming…