The attack submarine USS Boise departs Duqm, Oman, on Aug. 18, 2014, following a scheduled port visit. (Daniel M. Young/U.S. Navy)
The Navy said Friday it would retire a U.S. nuclear attack submarine whose long-delayed and over-budget overhaul has become a symbol of shipbuilding and maintenance dysfunction.
“We’ve made the tough-but-necessary decision to inactivate the USS Boise,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Chief of Naval Operations. “We owe it to our sailors and the nation to make these tough calls.”
Caudle said the time and money saved on the USS Boise, a 34-year-old Los Angeles-class submarine, could be put to better use accelerating the building of new Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines and Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Both programs have struggled with their own production delays.
The Navy’s decision to deactivate the Boise came just days after the White House released its fiscal 2027 budget request that calls for $1.5 trillion in military spending, split between the defense budget and additional funding legislation.
Specifics on the Navy’s shipbuilding plan and request to retire some older ships are expected in the detailed budget plans each military service plans to release on April 21.
Then-Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper boards the USS Boise with Cmdr. Kris Lancaster, in Norfolk, Va., Sept. 25, 2019. (Lisa Ferdinando/Defense Department)
Commissioned in 1992, the Boise was one of 62 Los Angeles-class attack submarines that entered the fleet between 1976 and 1996. They were originally designed for a service life of up to 33 years.
The Boise fired some of the opening salvos of Tomahawk missiles in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It has been idle since returning from a 2015 deployment and lost its certification to operate submerged in 2017. Because of long backlogs for other projects at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the Navy sent the Boise to a private yard in nearby Newport News.
A $1.2 billion contract for overhaul was awarded in 2024, but officials said Friday that, despite spending $800 million to date, work on the Boise is less than a quarter complete and won’t be done until 2029.
The Boise has become a symbol of delays in Navy shipbuilding and maintenance programs.
During Caudle’s June 2025 confirmation before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he was asked what he would do about the Boise.
“Is it time we just simply pull the plug on that one?” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-N.D., asked during a confirmation hearing in June 2025.
Caudle called the situation “like a dagger in the heart” to the concept of a well-functioning submarine service.
Navy Secretary John Phelan told the digital news outlet Semafor that the Boise overhaul contract was a mistake.
“We screwed up,” Phelan said. “This doesn’t look good. It is what it is. Time to move on, and try to get going in the future and move forward.”
