Special report: USS Boise inactivation highlights continued submarine maintenance challenges

USS Boise, shown here entering Newport News Shipbuilding for planned maintenance, is being inactivated. (Newport News Shipbuilding)

The recent US Navy (USN) decision to inactivate Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Boise (SSN 764) highlights the difficulty in maintaining ageing SSNs, and comes as USN officials have underscored a need to increase submarine building capacity to sustain fleet needs and international agreement requirements.

The USN confirmed its decision on 10 April to inactivate Boise , ending an odyssey to overhaul and maintain the submarine that lasted more than a decade.

The Department of Defense Inspector General notified navy officials on 4 February it had “initiated an audit to assess the effectiveness of the Naval Sea Systems Command's management” of the Boise overhaul contract.

“After a rigorous, data-driven analysis, we've made the tough-but-necessary decision to inactivate the USS Boise ,” Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations (CNO), said in the 10 April statement about the inactivation. “This strategic move allows us to reallocate America's workforce to our highest priorities: delivering new Virginia [SSN] and [strategic-missile] Columbia-class [SSBN] submarines and improving the readiness of the current fleet,” Adm Caudle said.

The move is part of the navy's “broader, data-driven initiative to optimise the fleet's composition”, the USN said in the 10 April statement, adding that funds and personnel associated with the planned overhaul of Boise will be redirected to support “other navy priorities, including the timely delivery of America's submarine capability”.

Boise had become emblematic of USN difficulties with overhauling and maintaining its SSN fleet, an issue noted as early as a November 2018 report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). The navy originally scheduled Boise