Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Nevada docked in Naval Base Kitsap’s Delta Pier’s dry dock on Dec. 28, 2023. (Adora Okafor/U.S. Navy)
BREMERTON, Wash. — Naval Base Kitsap in Washington could be home to up to eight new ballistic missile submarines and serve as the homeport to three aircraft carriers, the Navy said this week.
The Navy is finalizing the Environmental Assessment for upgrading facilities at the ballistic-missile submarine base at Bangor at the northern end of the 20,000-acre Kitsap base, just west of Seattle.
“The Navy draft found no specific problems,” Greg Thompson, a Navy civilian planner on the submarine project, said Wednesday. A public comment period closes June 25.
Piers and dockside facilities would be renovated or rebuilt to accommodate the 20,000-ton Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, the largest ever built for the Navy. Work is expected to begin next year and be completed in 2032.
A similar modernization is already underway at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga.
The Columbia-class missile submarines would replace the Ohio-class missile submarines, which first entered Navy service in 1981. The new submarines are the sea-based leg of the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which also includes production of the B-21 Raider manned bomber and the future LGM-35A Sentinel land-based ICBM.
At Kitsap, the submarines would be replaced on a one-for-one basis, with an Ohio-class leaving for every Columbia-class that arrives. The base currently is the homeport for eight Ohio-class submarines.
“The total number of submarines would not increase,” Thompson said.
The first of the new submarines, USS District of Columbia, has been under construction at General Dynamics Electric Boat at Groton, Conn., since its keel was laid in June 2022.
General Dynamics said delivery of the first submarine is “on track” for 2028. After sea tests, it would go on active duty in 2030. The second Columbia-class submarine, USS Wisconsin, was laid down in August 2025 and has a scheduled delivery of 2030, with a target for active duty of 2032.
Because Kings Bay is at a more advanced stage of its modernization work, the first and second boats are expected to be assigned there, the Navy said.
A third boat, USS Groton, has been authorized and funded by Congress.
The lead boat is expected to cost more than $15.2 billion, with later boats averaging about $8.6 billion, according to an analysis by the U.S. Naval Institute. The Navy plans on building 12 of the ballistic missile submarines.
USS Abraham Lincoln sails in the Arabian Sea, May 29, 2026. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle has suggested that the carrier’s homeport could be shifted from San Diego to Naval Base Kitsap near Seattle. (U.S. Navy)
The Navy also said on Wednesday that USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, could move its homeport from Naval Air Station North Island to Naval Base Kitsap at some point.
USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class carrier, is homeported at Kitsap. It is in the later stages of an 18-month maintenance overhaul at the adjacent Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The work is expected to be completed before year end.
The base is undergoing an extensive $145 million electrical systems upgrade to prepare it for handling Ford-class carriers.
The Navy has announced that USS John F. Kennedy, the second Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, would be homeported at Kitsap after its commissioning scheduled for March 2027. The transfer to Kitsap would occur in 2029 after additional sea trials and training out of Norfolk Naval Station.
Admiral Daryl Caudle, the Chief of Naval Operations, was on the Kitsap base on Wednesday for the ribbon-cutting for the Warrior Eatery, a new dining facility for sailors.
During comments after the event, Caudle said USS Abraham Lincoln “would probably” move to Kitsap at an unspecified point in the future, according to a video interview with the Kitsap Sun, a local newspaper.
“We have to have division of our Pacific carriers between San Diego and Naval Base Kitsap,” Caudle said in the video.
Lincoln was previously homeported at Naval Station Everett, Wash., before 2011.
No specifics or timeline on a shift in homeport for Lincoln was released by the Navy.
