 I am Rick Breckenridge here from the Chinfos Studio at the Pentagon and there's a lot of talk in the building about cost and affordability and that is critically important but today I want to talk to you about one of the best bargains ever achieved in the history of all DoD acquisition programs and that is the Ohio class SSBN program. The submarine class was designed and built in the 70s and 80s for a planned service life of 30 years. Pretty impressive when you look at other submarine classes. If you do the math, the first Ohio would have left the fleet roles about three years ago but we all know that is not the case, they're still around today. Well America makes the best submarines in the world and this was true even back in the 1980s. These SSBNs were well designed, well built and have been well maintained and operated so much so that the country has been able to realize two significant national security bonuses. First, we were able to convert the four oldest SSBNs to become a new class, an SSGN class. This is a high payload volume arsenal ship that carries the bulk of our four deployed Tomahawk inventory in Paycom and Centcom and one only need to look as far as the 90 plus Tomahawk launched of USS Florida neutralizing Gaddafi's reign of terror in Libya during Operation Odyssey Dawn to really appreciate the strategic value and versatility of these converted SSBNs. Well the second major bonus that often goes unnoticed is the extended service life of the Ohio class from its initial plan 30 years to 42 years. The only state of this platform has become the Cal Ripken of our Navy and Nuclear Triad. They just keep on going and going consecutive patrol after consecutive patrol, setting records for operational days at sea and this is especially impressive when you consider that they are submerged over 60 percent of each and every year. When we as a nation procured the original 18 SSBNs, we had no idea we would reap such an incredible return on investment. So instead of the first Ohio replacement SSBN being needed to end service in 2010, we've been able to delay this recapitalization by a whole 20 years essentially skipping a generation avoiding significant costs out of our national treasury during the decade after 9-11, a time when our nation needed to conduct intensive combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well the good news is that we are designing the same kind of versatility into the DNA of the replacement SSBN class and this time we're designing it from the get-go to be a 42 year class that will protect our country well into the 2080s. We are doing this with a relentless pursuit toward affordability at every step. So the Ohio class built in the 80s represents one of the best bargains in DOD history and we stand to repeat this feat with the Ohio replacement program. How good a deal am I talking about? Well the key takeaway I want to leave you today is that the replacement cost of this new class of submarines represents less than 1 percent of the DOD budget over a fairly short time period of 15 years and that investment, that 15 year investment, will yield the most survivable strategic deterrence that will protect our country for the bulk of the remainder of this century, well into the 2080s. Truly a grand bargain. Well thanks for listening and see you next month.