The second life of a submarine: The US will finally repair a submarine that has been idle for 9 years
It is the USS Boise (SSN-764) of the Los Angeles class submarine
The U.S. Navy recently awarded a contract to HII Newport News Shipbuilding for the overhaul of the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Boise (SSN-764). The deal is worth $1.2 billion and is expected to be completed by September 2029. And, as the company’s representatives noted in a comment to Defense News, the work should start “immediately.”
This news is interesting because the repair work on this submarine should have begun nine years ago, in 2015, when the submarine completed its last patrol and was supposed to be relocated to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia for extended maintenance, Defense News reports.
But during these nine years, the USS Boise was regularly moved between the naval base and the shipyard, and there was not enough space or money to repair it, which actually makes this submarine a vivid example of the problems with the readiness of the US submarine fleet over the past ten years.
It is noted that one of the largest state-owned shipyards in the United States has faced numerous delays in the schedule, carrying out repairs of aircraft carriers and even work on the conversion of several submarines into training submarines. Thus, attack submarines have fallen to the bottom of the list.
So, coming back to the USS Boise, for example, in 2018, this submarine was transferred to the private shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding to begin a major overhaul that would last three years, until 2021. But even then, the work did not start. In two years, the company received $351.8 million from the US Navy to cover the planning work, but even after that, the work did not begin. Eventually, they should start after the announcement made on Friday, February 23 this year.
The work will allegedly include maintenance and restoration of the hull structure, tanks, electrical installation, auxiliary systems, weapons and equipment, as well as numerous modifications to the ship. “The NNS team looks forward to utilizing our nuclear submarine maintenance expertise to begin this important engineering overhaul of the USS Boise (SSN 764),” said Todd Corillo, a representative of Newport News Shipyard, in a comment to the publication.
