All the Fighting Submarines

Here Are All the Fighting Submarines of the U.S. Navy

The infographic includes attack submarines, guided missile submarines, and ballistic missile subs...all nuclear powered.

By Kyle Mizokami

 NAVAL ANALYSES

The U.S. Navy’s submarine fleet is one of the largest of the world, and certainly the largest and best equipped in the world. This infographic shows the six dozen nuclear-powered underwater titans of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy’s undersea fleet is larger than the surface fleet of most countries.


The excellent website Naval Analyses (Twitter), producer of visual aids that show U.S. naval aviation from 1917 to 2010 and attack submarines of the Mediterranean 2018, shifts its attention to the submarines of the U.S. Navy. The graphic depicts the 71 submarines currently on active duty, including Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, Ohio-class guided missile submarines, and Los Angeles, Sea Wolf, and Virginia-class attack submarines. Here's a link to a larger version of the graphic. All U.S. submarines are nuclear-powered, their range limited only by onboard supplies of food and other perishable goods.

The eighteen submarines at the top of the graphic are Ohio-class vessels. Built in the 1980s, the Ohio-class boats are armed with Trident D-5 submarine launched ballistic missiles. Their only job is to take nuclear missiles to sea where they are effectively invulnerable, deterring other countries from launching a surprise attack. Fourteen Ohios remain on the nuclear deterrence mission, while four Ohios were made redundant by arms control agreements and converted to each carry 154 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.

The three submarines in the middle are the Seawolf-class attack submarines. Designed during the Cold War to go after deep-diving Soviet submarines and operate under polar ice, the Seawolves are large, heavy, highly capable attack boats. One of them, USS Jimmy Carter, is known informally as a spy boat that avoids publicity and is believed to carry out highly classified missions. Carter was built with a Multi Mission Platform hull insert making it capable of launching and recovering underwater undersea vehicles, SEAL mini-submarines, and who knows what else.

The remaining submarines are the 48 Los Angeles- and Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines. These and the Seawolf boats are the real hunter-killers of the fleet, with the mission of stalking and killing enemy submarines and surface ships. They also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles for land attack missions and are a part of every deployed US carrier battle group to seek out and destroy enemy submarines.

The number of submarines in the U.S. fleet is a moving target: each year two more Virginia-class boats roll off production lines and older Los Angeles-class boats are retired. The navy is also considering boosting construction to three submarines a year, which would grow the size of the undersea fleet. Starting in 2029, the Ohio-class submarines will be replaced by the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines currently under development.