{"id":576448,"date":"2026-04-10T18:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T18:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576448\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T18:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T18:58:10","slug":"navy-calls-it-quits-on-attack-submarine-uss-boises-never-ending-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576448\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy Calls It Quits On Attack Submarine USS Boise’s Never Ending Overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The TWZ Newsletter<\/p>\n

Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Navy has abandoned plans to return the Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Boise to active duty. This brings an end to the saga of a still-incomplete major overhaul of the boat, which has lasted more than a decade now. In that time, it has become a poster child for the Navy\u2019s worrisome struggles to tackle huge maintenance backlogs<\/a>, as well as larger concerns about the availability, or lack thereof, of naval shipyard capacity<\/a> in the United States. <\/p>\n

The Navy announced its decision<\/a> to inactivate Boise, which was first commissioned into service in 1992, earlier today. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a rigorous, data-driven analysis, we\u2019ve made the tough but necessary decision to inactivate the USS Boise,\u201d Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, the service\u2019s top officer, said in a statement. \u201cThis strategic move allows us to reallocate America\u2019s highly-skilled workforce to our highest priorities: delivering new Virginia<\/a> and Columbia class submarines<\/a> and improving the readiness of the current fleet. We owe it to our Sailors and the nation to make these tough calls to build a more capable and ready Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A picture of USS Boise sitting idle in Norfolk, Virginia, in the late 2010s. USN <\/p>\n

\u201cThe move is part of the Navy\u2019s broader, data-driven initiative to optimize the fleet\u2019s composition, ensuring that every dollar is invested in capabilities that directly contribute to maintaining a decisive warfighting advantage,\u201d the service also said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cFunds and personnel associated with the planned overhaul of USS Boise will be redirected to support other Navy priorities, including the timely delivery of America\u2019s submarine capability.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, the Navy has spent approximately $800 million on Boise\u2019s overhaul, which is still only 22 percent complete, the service separately told Semafor<\/a>. The total estimated cost to complete the overhaul had risen to $3 billion, according to Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, you just cut your losses and move on,\u201d Secretary of the Navy John Phelan also told Fox News<\/a> in an interview ahead of today\u2019s announcement. \u201cThe Boise represents 65% of the cost of a new Virginia class submarine, yet it only delivers 20% of the remaining service life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Navy had originally planned for Boise to begin its overhaul in 2013, but the timetable was repeatedly delayed, primarily due to a lack of shipyard availability. The submarine has not been to sea since it returned from its last cruise in January 2015. The boat was deemed unable to conduct normal operations by 2016, and it formally lost its dive certification the following year.<\/p>\n

The Navy moved Boise from its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, to Newport News Shipbuilding\u2019s facilities in 2018<\/a>. Newport News Shipbuilding is a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII). <\/p>\n

The submarine returned to Norfolk the following year amid competing funding priorities. It went back to Newport News in 2020, but did not actually enter a dry dock there until 2021, after which limited maintenance work began. The full overhaul was then further set back due to budgetary issues, with a formal contract only signed in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The USS Boise seen arriving at the Newport News Shipbuilding yard in 2018. HII <\/p>\n

As of last year, the Navy was still pushing to complete Boise\u2018s overhaul and return it to the fleet, which was expected to occur in 2029. By that point, the submarine would have spent more than a third of its service life in port. <\/p>\n

The overall size of the Navy\u2019s Los Angeles attack submarine force has been steadily declining for years now already, as the service has acquired more modern and capable Virginia class types. The Navy commissioned 62 Los Angeles class boats between 1976 and 1996, and 23 remain in service today. <\/p>\n

As noted, the Navy\u2019s struggles with Boise are reflective of larger and more serious issues that have long challenged the service\u2019s ability to meet even its peacetime operational demands. Back in 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report<\/a> saying that the Navy had more than two decades\u2019 worth of operational time across its submarine fleets due to maintenance shortfalls. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Helena arrives at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for major maintenance in 2015. USN <\/p>\n

These are concerns that would only be magnified if a large-scale conflict, especially one with China in the Pacific, were to break out. For years now, TWZ has also been sounding the alarm<\/a> on the interrelated issue of dwindling U.S. naval shipbuilding capacity, in general, where the disparity with Chinese state-run enterprises has become enormous<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Navy, with support from Congress<\/a>, has been trying to take steps in recent years to reverse these trends, including moving to increasingly leverage foreign shipyard capacity<\/a>. The second Trump administration, through Navy Secretary Phelan, has been particularly open about its efforts to shake up<\/a> how the service acquires and maintains ships, and otherwise does business across the board. This has notably already included the cancellation of the Constellation class frigate program<\/a>, which had become beset by huge delays and ballooning costs, as you can read more about in detail here<\/a>. The Navy has been touting efforts to try to avoid similar pitfalls with new shipbuilding programs like the FF(X) frigate<\/a> and Medium Landing Ship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, by killing these programs, it\u2019s sending a message that we\u2019re not going to continue to send good money after bad investments, and that we\u2019re going to try to make prudent economic decisions that are in the best interest of the fleet and the force,\u201d Phelan said, speaking generally around today\u2019s anouncement about Boise, according to Semafor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How the Navy fares in its broader efforts to turn things around when it comes to shipbuilding and maintenance remains to be seen, but the USS Boise\u2018s increasingly sad story is now coming to an end.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: 2:10 PM EDT \u2013<\/p>\n

Todd Corillo, an HII spokesperson for the Newport News Shipbuilding division, has now provided TWZ with the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been notified of the U.S. Navy\u2019s decision to discontinue engineered overhaul (EOH) work on USS Boise (SSN 764). 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the importance of a strong submarine force to our national security. While our work on USS Boise will end, our commitment to ensuring our nation maintains our undersea maritime supremacy will not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact the author: joe@twz.com<\/p>\n

Joseph has been a member of The War Zone team since early 2017. Prior to that, he was an Associate Editor at War Is Boring, and his byline has appeared in other publications, including Small Arms Review, Small Arms Defense Journal, Reuters, We Are the Mighty, and Task & Purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The TWZ Newsletter Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-576448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}