Report: 36 Percent of US Navy Attack Subs Out of Commission

The U.S. Navy is down to 32 attack submarines as maintenance delays at naval shipyards have led to 36% of the fleet being out of commission.

A report by the Congressional Research Service published July 6 said that of the Navy’s 50 attack submarines, 18 are in maintenance or waiting for their turn. The report cited Rear Adm. Jon Rucker, who said in November 2022 the “best practice would call for just 20% to be tied up in repairs, or 10 boats instead of 18.”

Navy subs can fire ballistic and cruise missiles with nuclear warheads and torpedoes.

The report said, “Navy and Pentagon leadership repeatedly call the submarine force among America’s top advantages over adversaries like China and Russia; yet the U.S. has 50 attack submarines and four related ‘large payload submarines,’ compared to a requirement for a combined 66 to 72 attack and large payload subs.”

Ronald O’Rourke, a specialist in naval affairs who authored the report, wrote the maintenance backlog has “substantially reduced” the number of nuclear submarines operational, cutting the “force’s capacity for meeting day-to-day mission demands and potentially putting increased operational pressure” on submarines that are in service.

The report cited reasons for delays were there are only four naval shipyards in the U.S., a shortage of spare parts for Virginia-class subs, substandard steel used for building subs between 1987 and 2017, a problem with the hull coating for Virginia-class subs and three Virginia-class subs that were reported in 2016 to be built with defective parts.

In 2022, the Government Accountability Office said the Navy lost 10,363 operational days from 2008 through 2018 — the equivalent of more than 28 years — “as a result of delays in getting into and out of the shipyards.”

The Navy said by the 2026 fiscal year, it wants to reduce the number of subs in maintenance or waiting for work to be down to 10%.

Related stories