Submarine Decommissioning Schedule Changes
Back in June, I blogged about the (late-arriving) FY-07 Ship Decommissioning Message. Now, the Navy's put out an updated message. This Navy Times article discusses all of the changes; here's what effects the Submarine Force:
• Attack submarine H.G. Rickover will be deactivated March 1, 2007 instead of Sept. 30, 2007.The only big "surprise" I could see was moving HGR's decomm up seven months. Anyone else notice any surprises?
• Attack submarine Minneapolis-St. Paul’s deactivation date was fine-tuned from Sept. 30, 2007 to Sept. 27, 2007.
• Attack submarine Honolulu’s deactivation was moved up a year from Sept. 30, 2007, to Nov. 1 of this year. Her bow will be used to replaced the bow of San Francisco, which was destroyed in a collision with an underwater mountain in January 2005...
• The deep-diving research submarine Dolphin, the Navy’s last diesel-powered sub, will remain on the ledgers until Dec. 8, 2006, rather than Oct. 1, 2006. It will be sunk in a fleet training exercise. The Navy spent $60 million bringing Dolphin back to service after a fire in May 2002. Dolphin just recently rejoined the fleet.
Ships whose schedules did not change:
• Attack submarine Salt Lake City deactivates Nov. 3.
posted by Bubblehead at 12:06 AM
10 Comments:
I'm just surprised that we have such relatively new subs being decommissioned.
HGR isn't *that* old.
Heck, how long was the Parchee around?
Dale
9/12/2006 7:20 AM
She'll be 24 years old at decom...that's no spring chicken. The advances in technology since then, particularly those seen by the members of the opposing-team-that-cannot-be named ({cough} damned Russians {cough}), have been substantial.
Having just been to Texas' commissioning ceremony, I'd take a Virginia class any day over the older 688s -- and that's coming from an L.A. class plankowner.
Time for some new blood & fresh thinking.
9/12/2006 11:26 AM
Since you guys aren't going to be using these subs... mind sending them up North?
9/12/2006 12:32 PM
I guess the thing I find most surprising is the decomm of the Dolphin. After spending all of that time and money to refit her following the fire and flooding, why decomm her less than a year after her return to the fleet?
The only good thing I can see is that she will go down in a blaze of glory as a target for a sink-ex. I hope she gets to be sunk while being towed as a submerged target and not left bobbing on the surface.
9/12/2006 12:34 PM
Hey ex-et, do you think the Dolphin being "sunk" as a target vessel is really a ploy to get an unmanned remotely controlled Boat into our Silent Service. Think of the possibilities of having a secret vessel that could act like some other countries submarine doing stuff that made us have to attack it to protect a friend of USA. Now that would certainly justify spending $60M.
9/12/2006 9:46 PM
Date adjustments are probably a matter of capacity balancing among the decomm shipyards. I'd guess that they're planning to accelerate the 688 decomm schedule so they had to move the current dates up.
Training value would probably be best if they ran a submerged attack profile against the Dolphin while it's snorkeling on the surface. That's probably the most realistic scenario. (Those who know about tracking submerged submarines, know.)
9/12/2006 10:35 PM
When fire and flooding came about on May 21, 2002 the thought of sinking near "Tanner Banks Bouy" was in the minds of those on the "Dolphin" at the time. Intresting that "Dolphin" will finally be sunk after it's decommissioning. I saw 90 gallons a minute coming on board that sub before it was controlled. Wow, what a close call!
9/13/2006 11:09 AM
The "official" ceremony, where the
public is concerned is still Sept 22 @ 1000hrs. It will still be on the books, but not sure if anything else is going on with it.
Heard that the last "away" mission was last week. Sure hope they had a good ol'e time on the ol'e lady before chuckin' her under.
Ironic kinda but what are the chances that the Dolphin will be sunk at the same spot it tried to
sink itself?
Just glad its not going to be used again by another country. Although sinking her makes sense, why didn't they just put her in a museum somewhere?
9/13/2006 3:17 PM
Hey Everyone,
I've just updated HGRs history on wikipedia. Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hyman_G._Rickover_%28SSN-709%29
Pretty interesting career but she's been ridden hard and is going to be put away December 2006.
HMCM(SS) Plankowner
10/12/2006 7:50 PM
I found a lot of helpful info here!
10/01/2011 12:01 PM
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