At the end of July, the USS Florida (SSGN-728)—one of the oldest submarines in the fleet—completed a 730-day deployment operating in the U.S. Northern, European, Central, Indo-Pacific, and Southern Command areas of responsibility. When the Houthis started attacking merchant shipping in the Red Sea in December 2023, the Florida quickly chopped to U.S. Central Command, carrying more than 100 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, and was ready on arrival for strike warfare tasking.
The story of how a 41-year-old submarine prepared for and then carried out a two-year deployment that spanned the globe illustrates Submarine Forces’s (SubFor’s) priorities— warfighting, people, and safety—which align with Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Lisa Franchetti’s focus on “Warfighting, warfighters, and the foundation that supports them.”1
Warfighting
The submarine force deploys on time and according to plan in support of U.S. Strategic Command and the geographic combatant commanders. The force provides a credible nuclear deterrent and 100 percent of the nation’s survivable and enduring nuclear strike capability.
Countering worldwide threats and supporting U.S. allies and partners are major motivations for everything from enhancing force structure to improving maintenance and readiness and developing innovative tactics and capabilities. Therefore, the submarine force is honing its edge with new technologies, intensive training scenarios, better maintenance practices, and expanded partnerships with allies and partners.
Of course, warfighting readiness is founded on crew competence, proficiency, and the ability to operate safely at sea and in port by ensuring a foundational understanding of procedures and safety requirements and a commitment to procedural compliance.
During the past year, the ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) force exceeded U.S. Strategic Command’s readiness requirements. As I write this, 10 of the 14 U.S. SSBNs are at sea—a testament to the readiness and resilience of the Ohio class. A higher sustained operational tempo is providing better predictability for sailors and more effective and efficient maintenance while in port. To provide a more visible deterrent that underpins U.S. credibility and commitment to allies, several years ago the submarine force initiated a campaign of far forward port visits, exercises, and operations to remind our friends and any potential foe of the U.S. strategic umbrella. Throughout summer 2024, several SSBNs conducted visible operations in multiple regions of the globe, including a deployment by the USS Tennessee (SSBN-734) off the coast of Norway. With key Norwegian leaders on board, the Tennessee conducted a deterrence patrol in the Norwegian Sea and visited Faslane, Scotland, for a crew exchange—much as our “41 for Freedom” SSBNs did in Holy Loch during the Cold War. In the Pacific, the USS Louisiana (SSBN-743) visited Guam, exchanged crews, and was visited by Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force General Anthony Cotton. These operations demonstrated U.S. deterrence capability, readiness, flexibility, and credibility.
During the past year, 36 percent of U.S. fast-attack submarines (SSNs) and three of four guided-missile submarines (SSGNs) deployed to support fleet and combatant commanders around the globe.
As an example of our ability to operate anywhere the nation needs, we again conducted Operation Ice Camp in 2024. Ice Camp is a three-week operation designed to research, test, and evaluate operational capabilities in the Arctic region. The Navy’s Arctic Submarine Laboratory is the lead organization for coordinating, planning, and conducting the operation, which this year involved more than 200 participants from five nations, the USS Indiana (SSN-789), and the USS Hampton (SSN-767). This was a joint effort with service members from the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force and partner participants from the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and Navy, the French Navy, and the Royal Australian Navy. Ice Camp provides training to maintain knowledge of the Arctic region where navigating, communicating, and maneuvering at sea are made more difficult by the unique acoustics, sea life, salinity, and ice keels present. Ice Camp shows the U.S. commitment to Arctic presence, strengthens alliances and partnerships with multiple partner nations, and helps build a more capable Arctic naval force.
Warfighters
The operational competence of the submarine force is based on the bedrock watchstanding principles of integrity, ownership, formality, knowledge, procedural compliance, a questioning attitude, and forceful backup. Every month, Rear Admiral Rick Seif, Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific, and I recognize a sailor from the Atlantic and Pacific submarine forces for their adherence to watchstanding principles. This recognition highlights and reiterates the importance of those principles in day-to-day operations on board submarines.
It is imperative that sailors have the tools and training they need to operate and maintain submarines. We strive to improve their quality of service by removing barriers to their ability to do their jobs. An example is removing redundant in-port watchstanding requirements to free up sailors’ time.
In the past year, “A” Schools have enhanced the training pipelines to deliver “day-one ready sailors” to submarines. This means graduates will be ready to qualify at a watch station immediately on arrival, needing only a single under-instruction watch and interview. This reduces exam generation and administration, reduces checkouts and interviews, and gets newly reported sailors contributing to the watch bill right away. The program started with passive broadband and electronic plot operators, and periscope operators will follow soon.
In response to junior officer feedback, we added flexibility in the officer career pipeline to allow back-to-back sea and shore tours to provide options to grow families and have homeport stability without losing at-sea experience.
To improve sailors’ connectivity with loved ones back home, Submarine Forces Atlantic, in coordination with Submarine Group Eight, installed Starlink on the USS Albany (SSN-753) and successfully tested it in Tromso, Norway. A second kit is on order, and in the coming years Starlink will be available on all submarines for use in ports around the world.
To reduce risk and improve responsiveness, we are installing new firefighting systems and better firefighting equipment to combat fires at sea and in port. We improved firefighting efforts on board submarines by adding upgraded self-contained breathing apparatus masks with built-in Naval Infrared Thermal Imagers, and we added removable fire-suppression systems for use in port. In addition, we procured CONEX boxes to put on the pier next to submarines providing greater access to equipment and more equipment than we can put on a submarine. We have also taken steps to better integrate civilian firefighting efforts in port.
Today, all sailors and officers are recruiters, and as of September 2024, the USS Illinois (SSN-786) leads the entire Navy in the “Every Sailor is a Recruiter” effort. We also recently established a Nuclear Power Officer Candidate (NUPOC) recruiting program to send senior leaders to top universities across the country to highlight the submarine force and draw the best young college talent into the force. The NUPOC program provides participants monthly pay and a housing allowance while completing their degree; awards a $30,000 accession bonus and full health insurance benefits; requires no uniforms, drills or grooming requirements during college; and counts toward time in service for retirement and GI Bill benefits.
Since 2019, the number of women submarine officers has doubled, and the number of enlisted women submariners has tripled. Today, there are 38 submarine crews with women officers, and 17 crews include women enlisted sailors. As of this year, every homeport and every class of submarine is now open to female officers. By 2028, every homeport except San Diego will have gender-integrated enlisted crews. In September 2024, we commissioned the USS New Jersey (SSN-796), the first fast-attack submarine built to host gender-integrated crews.
Foundation
Submarine Shipyard Performance (SUBSYD)
Over the past decade, there have been major challenges procuring new submarines on time as well as keeping the current force maintained to conduct underway operations. Current operational availability is hovering in the mid-60 percent range, and the CNO has set an aggressive goal of increasing that number to 80 percent—and made me the single accountable officer for on-time execution of public shipyard SSN availabilities. As an initial step toward that goal, we established the Submarine Maintenance Operations Center to identify, elevate, and resolve issues related to submarine shipyard execution. In partnership with Naval Sea Systems Command (NavSea), SUBSYD is leading multiple lines of effort to drive down the delta between current submarine operational availability and the goal established by the CNO.
We have increased material readiness prior to submarines entering availabilities. Specifically, the shipyards have procured long-lead-time parts before maintenance begins. With submarine availabilities lasting from six months to a few years, meaningful and definitive results have not yet been realized, but we have seen a few promising signs. For example, at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, the USS Minnesota (SSN-783) undocked early and returned to the fleet on time in July 2024. The SubFor/NavSea team invested in a digital transformation strategy with the goal of identifying issues and preventing stop-work situations, which is a significant contributor to submarine availability delays. In addition, we are identifying what work we should outsource to industry partners and developing a plan to identify which product lines to outsource to reduce the load on naval shipyards. Improving delivery of submarines from public and private shipyards remains a work in progress and an area of tight focus.
As a complicating factor, on 2 April 2024, the Navy announced an estimated 12- to 16-month delay in the delivery of the first Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine because of shipyard workforce shortages, supply chain challenges, and other issues. The submarine enterprise and submarine industrial base are working to resolve supply chain issues and to accelerate remaining construction work on the future District of Columbia (SSBN-826) with the goal of delivering that boat in fiscal year 2028. The Columbia class is the top acquisition priority, and we are committed to deploying the first in fiscal year 2031, as planned. We continue to investigate every option to meet the CNO’s goal and remain committed to working with NavSea to minimize the time it takes to achieve it.
Australia-UK-US Agreement (AUKUS)
AUKUS is a generational opportunity to combine the capabilities of partner navies, strengthen the collective defense industrial base, increase the number of allied players on the field, and drive innovation across the combined SSN force. AUKUS will deliver conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia, one of our closest partners.
Many people ask if we are concerned about losing U.S. SSNs to AUKUS. While there may be some risk, I believe in the partnership and see that risk as very low. We also must consider the huge gains to be realized in opening another nuclear maintenance port in the Pacific, improving our interoperability and interchangeability, and strengthening the industrial base of both the United States and our closest allies.
Six Royal Australian Navy (RAN) officers are currently serving on board U.S. submarines, and 43 RAN officers and sailors are in U.S. Navy training pipelines, with 104 more entering by the end of this year. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard now has 28 Australian contractors incorporated into its submarine maintenance force. A Virginia-class submarine completed a maintenance availability alongside the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39) in Stirling, Australia, in August; preparations have begun for the arrival of Submarine Rotational Force–West; and the first U.S. submarine will be forward deployed in Australia starting in 2027. Once Australia meets the conditions required (demonstrating the ability to operate, sustain, and regulate SSN capability), we will sell the first Virginia-class boat to Australia as early as 2032.
Preparing for the Future
Working with industry and academia, the submarine force is pursuing four major areas of future development: unmanned, autonomous, and hybrid systems; additive manufacturing; artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML); and cross-domain command and control.
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) and Subsea and Seabed Warfare (SSW)
In the past year, we established UUV Group One in Silverdale, Washington. This new command is responsible for training operators and employing vehicles across the undersea enterprise. Sailors from UUV Squadron One are training on the Yellow Moray torpedo-tube launch-and-recovery system in preparation for deployment of two REMUS 600-based Razorback AUVs on board the USS Delaware (SSN-791), allowing the submarine to extend her reach and capabilities. These UUVs will allow the submarine to conduct multiple operations at the same time, such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), acoustic collection, and bottom surveys. A UUV can get into areas too shallow, too deep, or too risky for a submarine—shifting risk from the submarine and crew to a robot.
We built an underwater confidence course we believe to be the best in the world, and we are running weekly UUV operations to learn lessons, improve planning, test vehicle and operator capabilities, and feed our databases for AI/ML and technical assessment. We have even opened the course to industry to conduct test runs and learn how best to operate and employ UUVs. Both Booz Allen and General Dynamics Mission Systems have completed runs.
Additive Manufacturing
Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is maturing quickly, and the submarine force is taking advantage. In collaboration with NavSea 05, the submarine manufacturing industry, and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, SubFor is working to print metal parts to fill supply shortfalls and emergent needs. A recent joint effort among PMS-392, SubLant, NavSea 05, Naval Submarine Support Facility New London, and Connecticut Galvanizing Company produced the first metal additive manufactured part—an auxiliary drain bilge suction strainer—installed on board the Delaware. The Emory S. Land deployed in August 2024 with a metal printing capability to support overseas submarine availabilities in Australia. To date, we have completed six deployments with onboard polymer printers, making more than a hundred polymer parts sustaining at-sea operations. NavSea is procuring additional polymer units to install on all future deploying submarines, and metal printing units for submarine maintenance centers.
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
The potential of AI to streamline and support submarine operations and sailors is immense. Task Force Turing is supervising all undersea-related AI projects and collaborating with top AI companies. In the past year, TF Turing established a common development environment (CDE) under Project Harbinger to facilitate all aspects of AI/ML operations within the undersea enterprise. The task force has developed, tested, and fielded several ML algorithms for acoustic data streams that have enhanced human-machine team performance by enabling operators to spend less time detecting and classifying acoustic data and more time focused on the remainder of the kill chain. After thorough testing and review, we have loaded open-source large language models into the CDE to support a variety of projects, including quality-assurance work, package development, interactive electronic technical manual creation, and software code refactoring.
Cross-Domain Command and Control
In today’s threat environment, success requires persistent and resilient communications between undersea assets and joint forces for both command and control and to find, fix, track, target, and engage the enemy. To maximize the stealth of the submarine force, we are developing nontraditional communications to increase overmatch and improve passive communications to reduce time at periscope depth. We continue to test other advanced technologies with a system-of-systems approach to facilitate communications at depth while minimizing time at periscope depth and maintaining high bandwidth.
Apex Predators
When the Florida returned to Kings Bay this summer, she and her crews had completed a journey that showcased many of the submarine force’s priorities and capabilities—capabilities that make U.S. submarines the apex predators of the fleet. None of our adversaries possess the knowhow, grit, and determination to keep a 41-year-old submarine operational, ready for combat, and capable of a two-year deployment spanning the globe. A testament to her crews, the Florida’s deployment is just one example of our warfighting readiness, unwavering commitment to safety, and the valor of our people. Her accomplishments—and those of all other submarines and crews—are a clear demonstration of how the U.S. submarine force remains ready and continues to deliver warfighting capability to combatant commanders.
1. The USS Florida (SSGN-728) has two crews—Blue Crew and Gold Crew—and the two-year deployment involved several crew swaps overseas.