U.S. Navy Decommissions Nuclear Submarine USS San Juan; Kittery Shipyard in Maine Helped Extend Its Service Life

The U.S. Navy recently held a decommissioning ceremony for the USS San Juan, as the Los Angeles-class fast attack nuclear submarine officially departed the fleet at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State after nearly four decades of service. Named after the capital of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, the San Juan was commissioned on August 6, 1988, and its decommissioning coinciding with its commissioning anniversary carries notable symbolic significance.

The San Juan had an important connection with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Approximately 15 years ago, the submarine entered the shipyard for a major engineering overhaul, completing critical overhaul work between 2010 and 2012. Photographs released by the U.S. Navy in 2011 showed shipyard workers completing the submarine's undocking one day ahead of schedule, reflecting the maintenance progress and shipyard support capabilities at the time.

The work performed by the Kittery shipyard on the San Juan went beyond routine maintenance, encompassing system modernization upgrades, structural repairs, and reactor inspections, all aimed at extending the submarine's service life and maintaining operational readiness. Subsequently, the submarine returned to the Maine shipyard for routine maintenance and updates, demonstrating the shipyard's sustained role in the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine lifecycle support system.

As the decommissioning process unfolds, reusable equipment, components, and weapons aboard the San Juan will be removed, and the hull will subsequently be cut up for scrapping. Its nuclear reactor and associated compartments will be sealed and transported to a nuclear waste disposal facility in Washington State. For the U.S. Navy, this marks not only the end of a single submarine's service career but also reflects the gradual retirement of Los Angeles-class submarines built in the late Cold War era from the front-line fleet.