American submarine operations in 2022
The full data of where they went and what they did
My Newsweek article about attack submarine operations has unleashed a torrent of negative comments from U.S. Navy and submarine supporters, almost all of them making the argument that it is a good thing we don’t use our submarines because they are ready for war should we need them. The argument is wrong, which is to say that the Navy can’t have it both ways, that we are ready to “fight tonight” and that the submarines are out their doing real world operations at all times, and that the deployment of only 20-25 percent of the entire force during the entire year is a sign of either readiness or relevance. As the article says, the complex machines are being pushed to their limits (or more precisely, to the human limits of those that man them) and everything follows the schedule, limiting surge deployments, which didn’t happen in 2022 despite world events.
I have taken the classified Navy logs, public records, and the work of submarine spotters to create a timeline of submarine operations in 2022 if you want to do your own analysis. I have coordinates of where forward deployed submarines were located if anyone wants the data on specific submarines. Most of the data is behind the paywall.
January 2022
Eight attack submarines are forward deployed, four each in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Two submarines, the USS Colorado and the USS Washington are in the Norwegian Sea and further north, the Washington making a port call in northern Norway. The USS Albany joins these two submarines later in the month. In the Pacific, the USS Jimmy Carter, USS Alexandria, and USS North Carolina operate stealthily in and around the East and South China Seas. The USS Missouri calls in Japan.
On January 15, the USS Nevada (SSBN 733) arrived in Guam for a “routine prescheduled” port call, the first visit of a ballistic missile submarine since 2016 and only the second announced visit since the 1980s.
5 January 2022
USS Ohio (SSGN 726) moors at Naval Magazine Indian Island, Washington for a 10-day ammunition offload following a 28-month deployment.
7 January 2022
USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) makes a brief stop off the east coast of Dungeness Spit, Washington, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
USS Springfield (SSN 761) change of command ceremony, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
8 January 2022
USS Jimmy Carter makes a brief stop off Dungeness Spit in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
9 January 2022
USS South Dakota (SSN 790) moors at Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut after a two-day underway for routine local operations.
10 January 2022
USS Missouri (SSN 780) moors at Yokosuka, Japan, for a 15-day port call.
USS Delaware (SSN 791) departs Groton homeport for routine local operations.
11 January 2022
USS Washington (SSN 787) visits Tromso, Norway.
USS Indiana (SSN 789) makes a brief stop off the coast of Electric Boat shipyard in Groton.