abstract:The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to military ships and larger civilian craft.
The Navy has put together a tightly-wound schedule for developing that successor that requires design work to commence in the fiscal year beginning this October, with a seven-year construction phase for the leadship starting in 2019.
The year the oldest Ohio-class ballistic-missile sub completes its final nuclear patrol is now expected to be 2027, which sounds a long way off until you realize it takes nearly two decades to design, develop, build and test the leadship in a successor class.
The journey was further delayed for four hours when the towline from the lead tugboat to the ship snapped, and another tug pushing the ship broke a bit.
