The United States must consider its maritime strategy in East Asia. To counteract the growth of the Chinese Navy, the Americans will have to depend on nuclear fast attack submarines and “boomer” ballistic missile submarines.
To bolster the strength of undersea warfare in the Indo-Pacific, the US Navy just completed a significant overhaul of the USS Ohio that will soon take to the sea again.
The USS Ohio is the first nuclear-powered guided missile carrier of the Ohio-class. It completed a three-year Major Maintenance Period (MMP) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility.
This Ohio-Class Sub Can Bring the Fight to the Chinese
The USS Ohio can now patrol the seas since completing the MMP last month. East Asia is a hot spot for the US Navy. At least half the submarines are deployed to the region, and they will have an outsize role to keep the Chinese in check.
There is a question about the efficacy of aircraft carriers facing down anti-ship carrier-killing missiles.
Due to this threat, the submarine force will have to pick up the slack. These Ohio-guided missile boats will fire land attack cruise missiles and serve as hunter-killers to eliminate enemy submarines and shipping.
To show their commitment to older submarines, the Navy took the maintenance period seriously, and workers were busy.
Extended Period of Significant Updates
“[Construction] involved over 512,000 resource days of work and included structural and mechanical upgrades such as shaft replacement, torpedo tube modernization, main ballast tank repairs, and superstructure preservation. Additional work addressed material obsolescence issues, requiring cross-program collaboration within NAVSEA, Army Recognition wrote. “One specific issue involved replacing a difficult-to-access section of trim and drain piping with minimal wall thickness, which was resolved through the construction of a mock-up and a new reinforcement method that minimized interference removal time.”
This Sub Was a Mainstay that Could Attack Anytime, Anyplace
The USS Ohio has enjoyed an intriguing and long history dating back to the Cold War. It was originally commissioned as a nuclear-capable ballistic missile boomer. The Ohio carried 24 Trident C4 nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles in 1981.
The Ohio was famous as a keeper of the sea operating from Naval Submarine Base Bangor, Washington. In those days, the Ohio would patrol for 70 days, and then a new crew would rotate in to conduct missions for months.
Conversion to a Guided-Missile Submarine from a Boomer Status
In 1994, the Navy decided to convert the Ohio and three other boomers into a guided-missile submarine (SSGN). The work was conducted to remove the Trident missile launch system and replace it with 22 new missile tubes to launch cruise missiles.
The Ohio-class SSGNs by 2002 became beasts that could carry 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Ohio could insert and extract Navy SEALs for special ops duties. The Ohio also became a platform for collecting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data.
In 2006, the Ohio was fully operational and joined the fleet regularly. The Ohio has responded since then and is notable for being forward deployed in East Asia when the Chinese have conducted nuclear ballistic missile tests.
The Ohio has enjoyed unit commendation awards for excellent tactical proficiency.
Those 4 Words: Retirement Means Lost Lethality
The Ohio is growing long in the tooth, and its sister subs under the Ohio-class SSGN designation will be retired in the coming years. The USS Florida, Michigan, and Florida will be decommissioned by 2028.
This could mean that the Ohio may be retired by then, too.
However, the MMP work was necessary, and the Navy needed as many boats in the water as possible to blunt the ever-growing Chinese Navy.
The Ohio-class SSGNs will be missed because the four subs have around half the vertical launch cruise missile capacity for the entire Navy’s submarine arsenal.
They will be replaced by the Block V Virginia-class subs with the Virginia Payload Module that has four vertical launch tubes to handle a launch of 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles per submarine.
The Virginia-class is considered one of the highest acquisition priorities by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The USS Ohio Can Bring the Heat to the Enemy
The USS Ohio and its sister subs can bring immense death and destruction to the enemy. They can fire the Tomahawks quickly and in succession with a volley of launch anytime and anywhere. These subs will be missed when they retire.
Until then, the USS Ohio will thus be an important sub in the future. The Navy desperately needs its missile-firing capability until the Virginia-class is completely ready.
It may not have many years left of service, and it is an older boat, but it will play a significant role in deterrence and land attack capability.
Without the Ohio-class of SSGNs, there would be no naval shock and awe campaigns to prep the battleground for land warfare.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for US Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former US Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
