The US Department of Defense has awarded General Dynamic Electric Boat an $83.7m modification to a previously awarded deal for the completion of an engineering overhaul of the US Navy’s Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) USS Hartford.
According to an 8 January 2025, contract modification notice, the work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut, and is expected to be complete by November 2027.
Commissioned into US Navy service in December 1994, the General Dynamic Electric Boat-manufactured USS Hartford has served for more than 30 years, with the standard life expectancy of the Los Angeles-class SSNs usually around 33 years.
With the commitment to an engineering overhaul of the USS Hartford, which is scheduled to complete during the boat’s 33rd year of service, the attack submarine looks set to continue into the late 2020s and possibly into the 2030s.
In 2009, the USS Hartford collided with a US Navy amphibious transport dock, sustaining damage to the conning tower.
In the US Navy’s 2024 report to Congress on the vessel construction and deactivation from Fiscal Year 2025, three SSNs (USS Helena, USS Pasadena, USS Topeka) were due to be commissioned in 2025, having served for 38, 36, and 36 years respectively.
The US Navy’s intended plan for 2026 proposed the decommissioning of three additional SSNs (USS Newport News, USS Scranton, USS Alexandria) and two ballistic missile submarines converted for use with conventional guided cruise missiles (USS Ohio, USS Florida), designated SSGNs.
Should the submarines be axed as planned in 2026, the three SSNs would have served for 37, 33, and 35 years respectively, while the USS Ohio would have been operational for 44 years, with USS Florida close behind at 43 years since being commissioned.
However, the US Navy is struggling to manufacture new submarines amid fiscal and shipyard constraints, with just a single new-generation Virginia-class SSN due to be built in 2025, followed by two boats in 2026.
Should the US Navy’s proposed decommissions happen as planned, then the service’s subsurface force would see a significant cut in the near term, as older boats are unable to be replaced on a one-for-one basis.
US Navy submarine spending swallows budgets
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), publishing a 2025 outlook for naval shipbuilding on 8 January, under the US Navy’s 2025 plan the service would spend $190bn on shipbuilding over the next five years.
All told, half the spending amount would go to submarines, including the build of the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines and the new Virginia-class SSNs.
Submarine construction does not include replacements for vessels that could be leased to Australia as part of the AUKUS programme, which will see up to five Virginia class operated by the Royal Australian Navy from the early 2030s.
In its January report, the CBO stated the US Navy’s budget would “need to grow significantly in real terms” when adjusted for inflation, for the service to buy, sustain, and operate a larger surface and subsurface fleet.
