INFOGRAPHICS #36: The Americas submarines in 2018

Written  by D-Mitch

The Chilean Scorpenes are currently the most
modern diesel-electric submarines in the continent

In the following infographic, named The Americas Submarines, I depict all the submarines that are in active service in America as of July 1st 2018. Currently, the United States Navy operates a massive amount of powerful nuclear-powered submarines, consisting of 14 Ohio class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), four (4) Ohio class (modified) guided missile submarines (SSGN), three (3) Seawolf class nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN) (including the highly modified USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23), 16 Virginia class SSN, 22 Improved Los Angeles class SSN, and 10 Los Angeles class SSN (see The United States Navy submarines in 2018). Three more Los Angeles boats are on paper still in commission but actually are out of service. San Francisco is being converted to Moored Training Ship (MTS), Jacksonville, has started a months-long preparation for inactivation and decommissioning and Buffalo is under inactivation and decommissioning procedure. Regarding the rest of the countries in the continent, there is no nuclear-powered  submarine (SSN) in any Navy (at least until Brazil commissions its first vessel after 2020), neither there is a submarine equipped with Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) system (the Chilean Scoprene class submarines are fitted but not with the system and will receive it in a future refit). It should be mentioned also that from the 21 countries of Latin America, only seven navies (7) have submarines in their fleet; Peru has the most numerous fleet but Brazil and Chile the most modern submarine fleets in the region. Moreover, the 92% of the Latin American submarines are German-built (!). Also, Argentina, while it has in its inventory the largest submarine in the region (TR1700 class: 67 meters length and 2,100t displacement), none of its submarines is currently in active service (see more details at The Attack Submarines of Latin America in 2018). In the Americas, there are 98 submarines in total of which the 69 are of the U.S.Navy.

The Americas submarines in 2018. For a high resolution image click here.