JUSTIN KATZ
The Navy today awarded HII a $1.2 billion contract to begin the engineering overhaul on the Los Angeles-class submarine Boise (SSN-764), a boat that has been sidelined for years due to the service’s ongoing maintenance backlog, according to the Pentagon’s daily contract announcements.
The work will be done at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., and the award allows for maintenance to begin “immediately,” according to the company.
“The NNS team looks forward to leveraging our experience in nuclear-powered submarine maintenance to begin this important engineering overhaul (EOH) of USS Boise (SSN 764),” Todd Corillo, an HII spokesman, said in a statement to Breaking Defense. “The contract covers work that will include maintenance and restoration of the ship’s hull structure, tanks, propulsion systems, electric plant, auxiliary systems, armament and furnishings, as well as numerous ship alterations.”
Originally launched in 1991, Boise has sat in port since 2017 due to a series of delays that denied it a timely availability at a public shipyard. If the Navy’s expectation of work being completed by September 2029 holds, that means there is a potential 12 year gap between missions for the Boise, a nuclear-powered, fast-attack sub.
In May 2020, Corillo said, the sub was sent to Newport News Shipbuilding for associated work to “de-risk the overhaul,” or in other words, provide HII the opportunity to identify ahead of time any unexpected issues that might need to be resolved during the long anticipated engineering overhaul.
Boise’s excessive delays have been repeatedly cited by lawmakers such as Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., as the “poster child” for the Navy’s ship maintenance backlog.
Although submarine maintenance is traditionally handled by one of the service’s public shipyards, the Navy has taken to tapping private industry in an effort to alleviate its maintenance backlog.
As the Navy’s senior acquisition executive, Nickolas Guertin, who was nominated to his position in 2022 but only recently assumed his office following a political impasse over military nominations in the Senate, is largely responsible for the service’s sub maintenance and contracting.
During his confirmation hearing in March 2023, he said he would “aggressively pursue any method we can” to resolve the backlog.
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