There is more than one... they had the one open in the picture, but is you read the article, or look at the other diagram, there is another.

Well, it is a good question, as it does become a single point of failure part. I do know that there are manual ways to operate these hatches, so some thought went into it. But some damage could effectively stop it. But that is true of almost any system, so the only thing is to engineer around it.

Just the first thought that popped into my head when I saw it. I was thinking not of blowing the hatch off, but just stopping it from operating. I am sure that a lot of thought went into the development process including dealing with that very cursory observation.

Well, that is sort of true. But if they do, they will also put the whole sub down, as it is integral to the hull. The chances of damaging the hatch are very small, unless you have an accident, or a near miss with something big. Overall, it is a good improvement as it standardizes all the equipment used for submarine Tomahawk weapons, as they convert the rest. This is the same technology used on the SSBNs converted to SSGN.

Great, now the enemy only has to damage one hatch to put the entire system out of commission.