The 97m (318ft)-long craft is the UK's newest nuclear-powered attack submarine and joined the Royal Navy fleet in August 2010.
But it's worth remembering that this is the first attack submarine that British workers have built from scratch in nearly 40 years.
Hagel also suggested that the Pentagon's five-year budget plan continues to plan for additional F-22 Raptor fighter jets and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in the region, along with a fourth fast-attack submarine deployed to Guam.
Thus, delaying carrier construction would allow some near-term cost avoidance, but over the longer term the service would end up paying more for each carrier and other combat systems such as the Virginia-class attack submarine.
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The proposed plan would retire seven cruisers early, delay construction of the next large-deck amphibious warfare ship by one year, cancel the second Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) in 2014, delay construction of two smaller amphibious warfare ships, and reduce procurement of littoral combat ships by two and joint high speed vessels by eight.
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There are also launchers for surface-to-air missiles, various gun placements, submarine attack torpedoes and two combat helicopters.
The effect of project delays was underlined this week in a report from the National Audit Office which revealed that the first three new Type 45 destroyers will enter service without sonar defences to protect them against submarine attack.
They did this with the French-designed Dauphin (PRC Z-9) helicopters by morphing them into ground attack and anti-submarine warfare missions.
Subsequently, a U.K. Trafalgar Class submarine fired Tomahawk Land Attack missiles at air-defense targets in Libya, Britain's Defense Ministry said.
It can carry more weapons - both spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles - than the earlier Trafalgar Class submarine.
The inquest was told that Able Seaman Ryan Donovan had drunk more than 20 pints of cider and lager over two days before the attack, in which he also shot and injured another officer while the submarine was docked in Southampton.
General Dynamics currently has 5, 000 engineers and draftsmen at work in and around Groton designing the next generation of ballistic-missile subs, and an additional 2, 000 tradesmen assembling Virginia-class attack subs, so the town is on firm ground in calling itself the submarine capital of the world.
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