One of the youngest Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarines will be inactivated after waiting more than a decade for an overhaul, the Navy announced on Friday.
USS Boise (SSN-764), currently in a drydock at HII Newport News Shipbuilding, Va., has been scheduled for a regular overhaul since Fiscal Year 2016 but has spent years pierside waiting for repairs. While waiting for a slot at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Va., the 34-year-old submarine lost its dive certification in 2017. After years at the pier, the Navy decided to enlist HII to repair the submarine at Newport News. The boat was towed to Newport News in 2018, back to Naval Station Norfolk and back again to Newport News in 2020. From then, Bosie waited until the service awarded a $1.2 billion contract to HII for the work in 2024. Combined, the Navy has invested about $1.6 billion Boise, based on Pentagon contract announcements.
Now, after 11 years, the Navy intends to inactivate the attack boat and focus the resources on other new construction and repair projects. Faced with a ship that has been idle for more than a decade, the cost for the repair versus other efforts wasn’t with it, the sea service said.
“This strategic move allows us to reallocate America’s highly-skilled workforce to our highest priorities: delivering new Virginia and Columbia-class submarines and improving the readiness of the current fleet,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said in a Friday statement.
During a Congressional hearing last year, Caudle said the Navy was considering walking away from Boise.
“Funds and personnel associated with the planned overhaul of USS Boise will be redirected to support other Navy priorities, including the timely delivery of America’s submarine capability,” reads a Friday Navy statement.
In a statement, HII said, “we will work with the Navy to execute this decision in an efficient, cost-effective way. We anticipate there will be no impact to our workforce and will transition shipbuilders currently assigned to USS Boise to other work underway at Newport News Shipbuilding.”
Boise has been the public emblem of the service’s submarine maintenance backlog in its four public shipyards that prioritize work in order of ballistic-missile submarines, aircraft carriers and, finally, attack boats. The backlog for attack boats at the four public shipyards are due to maintenance availabilities getting longer and not enough workers at the public yards, the Congressional Budget Office found in 2021.
“After overhauls, Virginia-class submarines have returned to operations almost nine months later than expected, on average. Los Angeles-class submarines have taken four and a half months longer than scheduled, on average, to return to the fleet,” reads the report. “As a result, some submarines have missed deployments or had their deployments at sea shortened. The delays have reduced the number of submarines that the Navy can put to sea, idling expensive ships and their skilled crews.”
While the Navy has made efforts to improve workforce and schedules in the public yards, the fundamental problems at the shipyards have continued to linger, naval analyst Bryan Clark with the Hudson Institute told USNI News on Friday.
“It’s a sad statement on the Navy industrial base,” he said.
The Navy has tapped private yards HII Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat in Connecticut to take on maintenance availabilities in addition to submarine construction.
GD Electric Boat completed a three-year overhaul on USS Montpelier (SSN-765) in 2019 and was awarded a contract in 2022 to repair USS Hartford (SSN-768), which is ongoing. Newport News Shipbuilding was awarded work for USS Helena (SSN-725) – delivered in 2022 – USS Columbus (SSN-762), which is ongoing, and Boise.
Work at the private yards has been more expensive than the public yards with the shipyards hiring repair workers who have a different skillset than new construction workers.
“The same humans that are repairing Boise aren’t the same humans that are going to build new submarines,” Clark told USNI News.
Overall, Clark agreed with the Navy’s decision to redirect the resources to repairing submarines that could stay in the fleet longer with the same level of resources.
“It’s the right call,” he told USNI News of inactivating Bosie. “The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”
