WASHINGTON — The Navy today unveiled plans to inactivate the Los Angeles-class attack submarine Boise, which hasn’t operated at sea in over a decade and has been plagued with a series of maintenance delays.
The decision to mothball the Boise aligns with a broader, “data-driven initiative” that aims to enhance the composition of the Navy’s fleet, and guarantee that funds are “invested in capabilities that directly contribute to maintaining a decisive warfighting advantage,” the Navy said in a news release.
“This strategic move allows us to reallocate America’s highly-skilled workforce to our highest priorities: delivering new Virginia and Columbia-class submarines and improving the readiness of the current fleet,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said in the statement, which characterized inactivation plans as a “tough but necessary decision.”
“We owe it to our Sailors and the nation to make these tough calls to build a more capable and ready Navy,” Caudle said.
It’s not immediately clear when the Boise, which was commissioned in 1992 and lost its dive certification in 2017, will start undergoing the inactivation process.
Caudle, who previously served as the Navy’s top operational submariner, told lawmakers in July 2025 during his Senate confirmation hearing that he would evaluate whether to “walk away” from the Boise. Likewise, he described maintenance delays affiliated with the vessel “a dagger in my heart as a submarine officer.”
While the public shipyards typically complete maintenance on nuclear submarines, maintenance backlogs prevented the Boise from undergoing an extended engineering overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in FY16 as originally planned.
Ultimately, the Navy awarded HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding a $1.2 billion contract in 2024 to complete an engineering overhaul on the submarine. The contract estimated maintenance on the vessel would conclude in 2029.
Todd Corillo, a spokesperson for HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division, said that HII had been notified of plans to discontinue maintenance on the Boise and would continue to work with the Navy to “execute this decision in an efficient, cost-effective way.”
“We anticipate there will be no impact to our workforce and will transition shipbuilders currently assigned to USS Boise to other work underway at Newport News Shipbuilding,” Corillo said in a statement to Breaking Defense. “We understand the importance of a strong submarine force to our national security. While our work on USS Boise will end, our commitment to ensuring our nation maintains our undersea maritime supremacy will not.”
The announcement to nix work on the Boise comes as the Navy is seeking to bolster US shipbuilding. In total, the service is asking for $65.8 billion for shipbuilding in its FY27 budget request — up from the FY26 enacted budget that allocated $27.2 billion to shipbuilding. The Navy’s request includes $11.4 billion for two new Virginia-class submarines, and $10.5 billion for one Columbia-class submarine.
