Submarine USS Toledo arrives at Norfolk for overhaul

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The submarine USS Toledo arrived at the Norfolk, Va., Naval Shipyard for a scheduled Engineered Overhaul, the Naval Sea Systems Command announced on Friday.

The Los Angeles-class vessel, commissioned in 1995, will undergo replacement, repair and overhaul of hardware and mechanical systems following an "early production period" that encompasses advance planning, execution services and availability preparations for task.

The Command estimated that 437,000 total workdays -- more than two years worth of work -- will be required for completion of the task.

It also marks the shipyard's first comprehensive overhaul of a submarine in several years -- the Norfolk Naval Shipyards previously worked on the USS Newport and the USS Albany.

For the first time, though, some work will be accomplished as the vessel sits pierside while the drydock is undergoing improvements, a part of the Navy's $21 billion, 20-year Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program at its four U.S. shipyards, begun in 2018.

"Due to the construction timeline on having Dry Dock 2 ready for us to dock, we decided to build a plan to get as much work finished as possible pierside prior to docking," Chad Waldroup, deputy project superintendent, said.

"With the COVID -19 pandemic, the project team worked through a plan to have a smaller team travel to the boat's homeport in Groton, Conn., and perform pre-arrival work to allow us to get into the major work quicker once the boat arrived," Walfroup added.

The nuclear-powered submarine carries four 21-inch torpedo tubes and 12 vertical launch Tomahawk missiles. In 2001 and 2002, the vessel saw service in the Mediterranean several times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.