...best, and I say this as someone who rode our SSBN's....their subs used to be pretty mediocre as well. They upgraded first because even the mammoth typhoon boats are 20+ years old, have had no significant upgrades since the wall fell...it was only a matter of time...they've been developing this for 10-15 years. We did the same thing with the Ohio boats that they are doing now...replacing the old 60's thru 80's technology with fewer boats carrying more missiles....we've never taken our submarine "net" down. All subs have a unique signature...I have no doubt we will know it and how to look for it. Not trying to sound hawkish but I enjoyed the 9 years I spent on subs...I learned a lot of things...even as good as this sub is it's probably on par with the older Ohio's and late improved Los Angeles classes....our next generation ssbn's are in development and the Virginia class SSN's are some of the best subs in the world if not the best...there's a good chunk of that defense budget dedicated to our subs and their upkeep...

All that being said we are also long overdue for another round of strategic weapons talks with the other nuke club members...perhaps it's a good time to set that up before Obama leaves office...couldn't hurt...