Nearly 40% of U.S. Attack Submarines are Out of Commission

Nearly 40% of U.S. Attack Submarines are Out of Commission

As if the military recruiting disaster or the Biden Administration’s embrace of woke and transgender policies for the military wasn’t bad enough, now we find out that almost 40% of U.S. attack submarines, or SSNs, the kind that shoot Tomahawk missiles at land targets and torpedoes at all types of vessels at sea, and conduct intelligence collection missions, i.e. the kind critical for the defense of Taiwan, are out-of-commission and stuck in naval shipyards.

From Bloomberg:

Delays at naval shipyards mean that nearly 40% of US attack submarines are out of commission for repairs, about double the rate the Navy would like, according to new data released by the service.

As of this year, 18 of the US Navy’s 49 attack submarines — 37% — were out of commission, according to previously undisclosed Navy data published by the Congressional Research Service. That leaves the US at a critical disadvantage against China’s numerically superior fleet.

The maintenance backlog has “substantially reduced” the number of nuclear submarines operational at any given moment, cutting the “force’s capacity for meeting day-to-day mission demands and potentially putting increased operational pressure” on submarines that are in service, CRS naval analyst Ronald O’Rourke said in a July 6 report.

Worst of all, the trendline is bad and getting worse, as the 37% out-of-commission rate is “up from 28% overall in 2017 and 33% in 2022, and below the industry best practice of 20%.” “The best year for attack sub availability was fiscal 2015 when 19% — or 10 of the then 53 subs — were in overhaul, according to figures contained in a June 13 Navy information paper.”

Like I said, the trendline is bad and getting worse.

The Navy, of course, deflected responsibility and tried the old “it’s not that bad” line:

The Naval Sea Systems Command blamed “planning, material availability, and shipyard execution,” according to a statement issued in response to the new statistics. The service has launched several initiatives to address these “primary maintenance delay” drivers, it said.

The command gave an updated maintenance backlog status, saying that 16 of 49 subs, or 32%, were out of commission as of late June.

This doesn’t cut it because “US defense officials and lawmakers consider the submarine force a key advantage over China’s bigger navy,” to which I say, no kidding.

It also contrasts with the Biden Administration sending submarines on show the flag missions around the globe, in hopes of deterring some of the crazies out there:

The previously undisclosed backlog woes stand in contrast to current Pentagon policy that’s called for increased visibility worldwide for the US sub force as a message to China, Russia and North Korea. The US has occasionally showcased its submarines in the past, but the pace picked up in the last year with publicized port visits in the Arabian Sea, at Diego Garcia, at Gibraltar and in the Atlantic.

The most recent was a June appearance by the guided-missile submarine USS Michigan in Busan, South Korea.

Well, that’s not going to work too well if it’s all show and you don’t have the actual submarines available to execute the missions.

Biden seems to be doing the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt, who advised “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

And it may seem like only 18 attack submarines being “out-of-commission” out of 49 is not that bad, but the number of attack submarines the military’s operational combatant commanders say they need, “76 SSNs in the [year] 2025,” is way higher than 49, and of the subs remaining in an operational status, many of them are getting relatively minor repairs in their own homeports, or going through the long and arduous process to get certified to deploy overseas. So not all of the available subs are really available to deploy for a contingency at any one time.

Also, as an aside, being in the shipyard is an absolute morale buster for a submarine crew. I remember being in the wardroom on USS Guardfish (SSN-612), in the shipyard, in 1984, sitting on a flat piece of sheet metal, surrounded by metal shavings, smelling the choking fumes from arc welding, and hearing the rattling sounds of multiple chain falls lifting heavy equipment out of the boat. And I’ll never forget our Navigator coming up to me and saying “I’ve always wondered what hell is like. Now I know.” Anyway, it’s not fun, and consider the case of USS Connecticut (SSN-22):

One current example of the extreme backlog is the USS Connecticut, one of three premier Seawolf-class submarines. It struck an underwater mountain in the South China Sea 20 months ago and won’t be back in service until early 2026 at the soonest.

And all this at a time, we find out, that the Biden Administration is also slashing its shipbuilding proposals in the new defense budget:

The Biden administration wants to enact sharp budget cuts to the U.S. Navy that would force it to prematurely retire almost a dozen ships and take offline critical missile systems that serve as a primary deterrent to Chinese aggression.

President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal would deal a massive blow to the already strained American Navy—the White House wants to prematurely retire eight ships and two combat vessels. By taking these ships out of action, the Navy would lose more than 600 vertical launch missile systems—a missile capability that serves as the primary deterrent to Chinese military attacks in the Pacific.

Fortunately, some Republicans in Congress are not happy:

“The Biden Administration’s defense budget would hollow out our fleet and scrap Navy radars and missile systems we desperately need to deter China,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s ranking member, told the Free Beacon. “Prematurely retiring our ships sends exactly the wrong signal to China as they continue to build their own Navy at a historic pace.”

***

Biden’s budget also aims to reduce spending on naval reactors—which power nuclear-armed submarines—by 5.6 percent, or $1.96 billion, relative to last year’s budget, according to the budget information provided by Wicker.

That last piece is key, because the current operational attack submarine shortage cannot be made up, if Joe Biden has his way, with new commission attack submarines coming out of Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut.

And let’s not forget about Joe Biden’s admission earlier this week, that we reported on, that due to our largesse in providing weapons to Ukraine, we are running out ammo ourselves.

I had been curious about why we were sending cluster bombs to Ukraine. I hadn’t heard that there was a glaring need for this type of anti-personnel weapon, as the Ukraine war so far has been mainly an intensive anti-armor artillery action, and the move was sure to cause international angst, as many (I am not one) view cluster bombs as “bad.” Now we know why the cluster bombs — it’s all we have left.

The sad state of today’s military, and especially our submarine force, worries me greatly. Hopefully there is relief coming on the horizon somehow.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.