US Navy sees improved upkeep as hedge against strategic submarine dip
By Megan Eckstein
Nov 8, 06:39 AM
ARLINGTON, Va. — “It’s counterintuitive,” the head of U.S. submarine forces acknowledges, but the Navy’s ballistic missile submarine force is spending more time operating at sea while also seeing better material readiness rates.
The trend is encouraging, submarine leaders say, because an upcoming dip in the size of the fleet will mean these SSBNs will have to stay at sea longer and spend less time in maintenance, or risk not meeting national nuclear deterrence requirements.
U.S. Strategic Command requires that 10 SSBNs be available at any given time. The fleet has 14 boats today but will soon drop to just 10 and then only bounce back up to 12 as the current Ohio-class SSBNs reach the end of their planned service life and the new Columbia-class boats come online.
When the fleet stabilizes at 12 boats, it will only be able to afford having two vessels in maintenance at any given time, compared to the four that are often offline for maintenance today.
Vice Adm. William Houston, the commander of naval submarine forces, is conducting something of a dry run now — and he said it’s going well, with the fleet at “a higher [operating tempo] than we have historically been … while actually improving material readiness across the force.”
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2023/11/08/us-navy-sees-improved-upkeep-as-hedge-against-strategic-submarine-dip/
