The maintenance period involved drydocking to carry out critical upgrades and repairs, supporting the vessel’s long-term readiness. Virginia-class submarines are considered essential to national security due to their versatility and nuclear-powered fast-attack capabilities.
USS John Warner represents the first Block III Virginia-class submarine to undergo drydocking at any of the United States’ four public shipyards. The Block III designation refers to submarines built under the third acquisition contract with a redesigned configuration.
Preparations for the project included coordination with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility. These shipyards had prior experience with Virginia-class maintenance availabilities, contributing to knowledge sharing across the program.
“NNSY’s commitment to learn and reach out for knowledge from the other shipyards for critical work evolutions has been a major key to the success of the project,” said Charles Brock, Submarine Program Manager at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. “The Virginia-class shipyard community is a very close-knit group that leans in to help one another. Because this is the first Block III EDSRA for the corporation there were many opportunities where NNSY was able to share lessons learned with the other shipyards to help them as well. Additionally, the team’s drive to work all possible solutions and then execute the best one was critical.”
The shipyard reported that the submarine undocked with several major tasks completed, including crew re-embarkation, mast and periscope installation, and initial command and control system testing. This combination of milestones has not been achieved during a submarine availability at the shipyard since 2001.
“The powerful collaboration between our crew and the shipyard delivered the most materially ready submarine I’ve undocked,” said Cmdr. Nicholas Tuuk, commanding officer of USS John Warner. “This achievement allows us tonow fully focus on forging a crew of master submariners, ready to execute any mission when we return to the fleet.”
More than 95 percent of production work has been completed, with remaining efforts focused on testing and crew readiness ahead of sea trials. These steps are intended to ensure the submarine is prepared for operational deployment.
The shipyard established a Submarine Maintenance Operations Center Detachment in 2025 to support maintenance delivery timelines. The center assists project teams by addressing material, resource and technical challenges while aligning work with readiness priorities.
“Clearly identifying the project’s needs and expecting a reciprocal response and commitment has been one of the key elements to the success of John Warner,” said Brock. “It has kept the team and all support aligned to what was needed and when it was needed. Additionally, the team employed a process of setting aggressive goals with specific dates to steer the shipyard in the direction needed to complete these major key events.”
“It’s a great win for our shipyard and Navy taking such a huge step toward delivering a Virginia-class submarine back to the fleet and ready to meet the mission,” said Rear Adm. Kavon Hakimzadeh, shipyard commander. “I thank everyone for their efforts so far and we now rally around John Warner to urgently complete all remaining work as a committed team to return this critical asset supporting our nation’s warfighting readiness.”
Commissioned in August 2015, USS John Warner is the 12th Virginia-class attack submarine and is named after former U.S. Senator John Warner. Norfolk Naval Shipyard said its mission is to repair, modernize and maintain Navy vessels to ensure fleet readiness and operational availability.
