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The Navy is inactivating a nuclear-powered attack submarine that’s been sidelined for a decade as the Trump administration continues to push forward with its massive naval expansion efforts.
The Los Angeles-class USS Boise has seen years of delays and lost its dive certification in 2017. In an interview with Semafor, Navy Secretary John Phelan said the attack submarine has so far cost the US almost $800 million, but only 22% of scheduled overhaul work has been completed.
The decision to inactivate the USS Boise is just the start of Phelan’s shakeup plans. He told Semafor that he’s reviewing every program as the service shifts to implementing President Donald Trump’s “Golden Fleet” initiative, aimed at building up new battleships and revamping the Navy after years of concerns about the country’s existing fleet size.
“We screwed up,” said Phelan, who described a push for “radical transparency” under his leadership. “We did. This doesn’t look good. It is what it is. Time to move on, and try to get going in the future and move forward.”
The president’s recently released 2027 budget proposal includes more than $65 billion for such shipbuilding efforts — a big increase from the prior year, which allocated less than $42 billion for 19 new battle force ships.
Phelan said that, had he completed maintenance on the USS Boise, the total lifecycle cost could hit roughly an additional $1.9 billion; he expressed skepticism that the ship would be ready in 2029, the latest estimate given.
The submarine is located at a private shipyard in Virginia amid backlogs at the Navy’s public yards, and has become a prime example of some of the issues the Navy has faced with shipbuilding and repairs over the years.
“I think, by killing these programs, it’s sending a message that we’re not going to continue to send good money after bad investments, and that we’re going to try to make prudent economic decisions that are in the best interest of the fleet and the force,” he added.
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While shifting resources away from the USS Boise is unlikely to solve the Navy’s broader maintenance backlog, Phelan argued that it would still free up labor and allow resources to be focused on other ships that can get out to sea and deploy sooner.
In a release shared with Semafor, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle noted that the decision would in part allow the Navy to prioritize the delivery of its newer “Virginia and Columbia-class submarines.”
“The ’27 budget [will have] a very big impact on this, and in trying to get after it, and really an exponential increase in our readiness,” Phelan said.
“We’re going to push very, very hard [for approval]. I think it’s really quite necessary, to be perfectly honest.”
If Congress defaults to a stopgap continuing resolution to fund the Pentagon for the next fiscal year, Phelan said, “it would not be good.”
Notable
- The Pentagon’s budget request is its highest since 1962, according to USNI News.