The Navy’s top officer last week outlined updates in the service’s strategy to extend the service life of several nuclear-armed Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) that could result in quicker turnarounds for delays in the new Columbia-class boats.
“We were looking at a number between four and five of these PIRAs, as we call them, these Post-Inactivation, Restricted Availabilities,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told senators during a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing. “And now the plans changed a bit, and we’re going to do one for sure, and we have confidence now because of the work we’ve done to look hard at the Ohio-class, that what we will learn during that one will allow us to target any additional ones we need to do without necessarily having to do the PIRA.”
Caudle said the Navy will learn from the first PIRA event with one Ohio-class boat and then scale that knowledge across however many SSBN extensions they decide they need to ensure “we have a clean ‘make before break’ transition between Ohio and Columbia.”
“Make before break” refers to an electrical switching option that establishes a new circuit connection before it disconnects the original one.
In 2023, a Navy official said the service planned to extend up to five Ohio-class submarines starting in FY 2029 with USS Alaska (SSBN-732) and each boat would be extended by three years following an 18-month long PIRA.
More recently, in March, Adm. Richard Correll, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command told SASC the Navy has high confidence in its ability and plans to extend Ohio-class SSBNs as a bridge to make up for the gap in Columbia-class delays.
Caudle also confirmed the first new Columbia-class SSBN, the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826), is 18 months off its plans and they are “working hard to get it delivered in ‘28, that’s our goal.”
Caudle said all the super modules of SSBN-826 are in place at prime contractor General Dynamics Electric Boat’s facility in Quonset Point, R.I., “so we’re now in the final stages of putting those super modules together, and so we’re trying to knock down barriers that have historically prevented us from getting that done.”
Caudle said the Navy and Electric Boat are trying to add new technologies including doing non-destructive testing in the off hours, adding more robotic welding, improving artificial intelligence utilization to improve workflows and management of actual technical work documents.
“So, there’s a lot going on up at EB. Hiring is a big initiative to make sure the workforce is in place and the development of that workforce to make sure we have no chinks in the armor to keeping those shifts rolling as we move forward on that delivery timeline,” Caudle said.
Last month, Vice Adm. Rob Gaucher, Submarine Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM), said the 2028 delivery schedule “is going to be a heavy lift. We’ve got to do better and so we have got to think, act and operate differently in order to get that ship deployed and out there operating.”
In February, Rear Adm. Todd Weeks said SSBN-826 was 65-66% complete and a nine month acceleration plan was in place to meet the 2028 delivery schedule so the boat gets into the water in 2027.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.