US nuclear-powered submarine that ran into an underwater mountain in the South China Sea is going to be stuck in repairs for years
- A US Navy nuclear-powered submarine ran into an underwater mountain in 2021.
- The USS Connecticut faces repairs set to cost about $80 million and wrap up in 2026 at the earliest.
A US Navy nuclear-powered submarine that ran into an underwater mountain while transiting the South China Sea in 2021 will be sidelined from service for at least a few more years as it waits to be repaired.
The USS Connecticut, a highly revered fast-attack submarine, is stuck at a shipyard in Washington state waiting for maintenance to begin, Bloomberg reported this week. Repairs to the vessel's bow and lower rudder are set to cost about $80 million and keep the Seawolf-class submarine sidelined until 2026 at the earliest.
The drawn-out repairs for the Connecticut highlight the repair backlogs and capacity issues with regard to fixing damaged vessels the Navy is facing. This has long been a serious problem — one that officials at the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, have said is negatively affecting readiness, according to the report. Bloomberg reported, citing Navy records, that 18 of 49 attack subs were unavailable for service because of maintenance.
"It will have taken AT LEAST 5 YEARS of repairs for the USS Connecticut — one of our most formidable submarines — to return to the fleet," Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted in response to the Bloomberg report. "This delay is a reminder of the kinds of monumental investments we need to make in maritime infrastructure."
The Bloomberg report cited a Navy statement saying submarine repair delays were caused by "planning, material availability, and shipyard execution." A Navy official told Insider that the upcoming repairs also included routine maintenance that had been scheduled even before the 2021 incident.
Built at the end of the Cold War to hunt Soviet vessels, the Connecticut, one of three Seawolf-class submarines, is considered to be among the Navy's most capable submarines. These vessels are armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles and torpedoes.
Based out of Washington's Naval Base Kitsap, the submarine was transiting international waters in the South China Sea in early October 2021 when it collided with an undersea mountain, damaging the submarine and injuring several of the Navy sailors onboard. The accident was initially met with skepticism and accusations from China, which had accused the US of being cagey and trying to cover up the accident.
Shortly after the incident the Navy sacked the vessel's command leadership over a loss of confidence before ultimately ordering a safety stand-down for its entire submarine force. An April 2022 declassified Navy report found that the accident was the result of several failings and was entirely preventable.
"A grounding at this speed and depth had the potential for more serious injuries, fatalities, and even loss of the ship," the report said, adding that it "resulted from an accumulation of errors and omissions in navigation planning, watchteam execution, and risk management that fell far below U.S. Navy standards."
"Prudent decision-making and adherence to required procedures in any of these three areas could have prevented the grounding," said the report, which also revealed that this wasn't the first time the $3 billion Connecticut had collided with an object. The vessel struck a pier in San Diego a few months before the South China Sea accident.
Now the Connecticut must wait a few years before it can return to the open ocean as shipyards remain backed up, posing a problem for the Navy as tensions continue to rise with China and as the prospect of a conflict over Taiwan looms. Beijing boasts a numerically larger naval force than the US, according to Pentagon data, though experts have suggested that Washington still enjoys a considerable advantage due to the quality of its force and the advanced capabilities of its submarine inventory.