Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) successfully undocked Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Columbia (SSN 771) July 16, 2020. The undocking was a major milestone in completing the submarine’s engineered overhaul (EOH) availability. An EOH is a major multi-year overhaul near the mid-point of a submarine’s service life to perform necessary repairs, maintenance and modernization to certify the submarine for unrestricted operations and to ensure the submarine is operating at full technical capacity and mission capability for its entire designed service life.
To achieve this milestone, the project team, ship’s force, and shipyard docking team collaborated to complete all required work, testing and documentation to ensure a safe and timely evolution. The team supporting Columbia’s EOH has a broad spectrum of skills that spans across the shipyard. Team members include project management, contracting specialists, quality assurance, engineering, shop and waterfront mechanics, docking officials and private industry all working together with a shared vision to achieve each milestone throughout the availability.
Columbia has been at PHSNY & IMF since October 2018. The ship’s EOH will require approximately 359,000 work-days to complete all required maintenance, modernizations and certifications necessary to return the ship to the fleet. Commissioned in 1995, Columbia was the last 688-class submarine to be built at Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. Columbia is one of the most versatile weapons platforms ever placed in the world’s oceans, capable of long-range Tomahawk strike operations, anti-submarine and surface shipping operations, surveillance and intelligence gathering, and special forces insertions.
USS Columbia (SSN-771), is the 21st flight III, or Improved (688i) Los Angeles-class attack submarine, and is the eighth vessel of the United States Navy to bear that name. The earlier Columbia’s were given their names for differing reasons; SSN-771 was specifically named in honor of Columbia, South Carolina, Columbia, Missouri, and Columbia, Illinois. She was the 33rd Los Angeles class built by Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut , and was launched on 24 September 1994 with the slide down a 1300-foot wooden ramp, the last American submarine to do so, giving her the title of “The Last Slider.”
