The U.S. Navy’s schedule for getting USS , one of its prized class nuclear attack submarines, back into service has slipped into next summer. The boat suffered severe damage, especially to its bow, in a collision with an underwater seamount in the South China Sea in 2021. The service had previously hoped that repairs would be finished before the end of this year, and planning is also now underway for the submarine’s retirement in 2031. This would mean it could serve for just four years before being pulled from service once and for all.

“USS (SSN 22) is currently undergoing a complex Extended Docking Selected Restricted Availability (EDSRA) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility. Current work consists of structural and systems restoration and required lifecycle maintenance,” a Navy official told today. “The Navy’s target completion date for the availability is the summer of 2027. PSNS & IMF is dedicated to executing this work with the highest standards of safety, technical accuracy, and craftsmanship to ensure the ship returns to the fleet ready to take its place at the tip of the spear in defense of our nation’s interests.”

USS is the second of just three class submarines commissioned between 1997 and 2005, the others being USS and USS. The , which came last, is a one-of-a-kind subvariant of the design that is optimized for underwater espionage missions. However, the and also feature advanced capabilities compared to other submarines in the Navy’s inventory today, and the service utilizes all three for a variety of specialized tasks, for which they are in very high demand.

After USS hit the seamount in October 2021, the submarine first limped to Guam, and then made its way to San Diego in southern California. From there, it headed north to the Puget Sound area, where it has been ever since. The Navy’s investigation into the incident put heavy emphasis on how a weak command environment and lax attitudes toward the performance of key tasks had put the submarine on a path to the accident, as you can The EDSRA formally began in February 2023.

At that time, the Navy projected that the repairs would be completed in September 2025. By July 2023, the schedule had already shifted to early 2026, according to . In July 2025, the service confirmed to that the timeline had moved again to the right, to late 2026.

The exact reasons for the delays are unclear. has stressed the particular complexities of major repairs to any of the Navy’s trio of class submarines in our past reporting on . As we wrote in 2023 around the start of the EDSRA: The Navy’s 2025 Fiscal Year budget proposal highlighted exactly these broader issues in seeking funds for spare bow domes “for use in the event replacement is required,” separate from the incident with the USS . The original sustainment strategy for the class did not include these items, which have a “three plus year lead time” to produce.

With the EDRSA, the Navy is also taking the opportunity to conduct a deep overhaul of USS , which could include the integration of various upgrades. The Navy’s budget documents have long highlighted efforts to modernize key systems on all three class submarines, some of which were first designed in the 1970s.

How much the repairs and accompanying overhaul will cost is also not clear. In 2021, Congress approved $40 million for “emergency repairs” for and an additional $10 million for a new bow dome, but the full price tag is expected to be far steeper. The class submarines were extremely expensive to procure in the first place, costing approximately $3.1 billion apiece in 1983, or some $10.6 billion in 2026 dollars. This was due in large part to the truncated order, from 29 down to three, as a result of post-Cold War drawdowns.

Depending on when repairs to the USS are actually finished, the Navy could find itself for at least a time with just one class submarine in active service. USS is currently scheduled to start a routine maintenance availability next May, which will then run through February 2030, per Navy budget documents. As mentioned, the Navy is now also planning to inactivate USS in 2031, making it the first class submarine to be retired, per its most recent annual shipbuilding plan.

The service still has plans to acquire a new class of attack submarines, which has been discussed in the past as something closer to a true successor to the class than the class boats being procured now. However, these new submarines, currently referred to as SSN(X), are not expected to arrive until the mid-2040s at the earliest. Between now and then, the Navy is set to acquire a one-of-a-kind seabed warfare version of the , which could well take over for the USS , as you canabout here. In August, the service announced that stretched Block IV and V class submarines with Virginia Payload Modules (VPM) will now be categorized as guided-missile types (SSGN), as well.

When it comes to USS , the Navy remains committed to getting the highly capable submarine back to the fleet after being sidelined for nearly five years now. At the same time, the boat has now already entered the twilight of its career, with just four years of active service life left if the current repair schedule holds.

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