U.S. Navy Scraps $800M Overhaul of USS Boise After 11 Years of Inaction

The U.S. Navy has officially abandoned a massive, 11-year effort to overhaul the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Boise (SSN-764), opting to inactivate the vessel after spending approximately $800 million on a repair project that never truly began. This decision marks a stark admission of failure in a long-running saga of bureaucratic and logistical paralysis, leaving a critical asset to rust pierside while the operational submarine fleet absorbed its duties.

The USS Boise last deployed in January 2015. Its scheduled overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, slated for fiscal year 2016, was repeatedly delayed. The submarine lost its dive certification in 2017 and was shuttled between public and private shipyards without meaningful work commencing. A $1.2 billion contract was finally awarded to Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding in 2022, but the Navy has now reversed course entirely.

The move signals a strategic reallocation of resources toward new Virginia- and Columbia-class submarine construction. However, it raises serious questions about accountability and process within the Navy's maintenance and procurement systems. The decade of inaction on the Boise represents a significant waste of taxpayer funds and a loss of operational capability, placing pressure on the service to demonstrate that lessons have been learned to prevent similar failures as it modernizes its undersea fleet.